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Mr. Drew
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the efficiency of information technology where the Child Support Agency is responsible for drawing payments from an individual for a number of children by different partners. [131376]
Mr. Pond
The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to my hon. Friend.
Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. David Drew, dated 26 September 2003:
The Secretary of State in replying to your recent Parliamentary question about the Child Support Agency promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
You ask for a statement on the efficiency of IT where the CSA is responsible for drawing payments from an individual for a number of children by different partners.
The child support computer system has been designed to support and reflect the change in policy under the new child support scheme. This means that it will allocate payments received from Non Resident Parents equally between all the relevant Parents with Care based on the number of qualifying children. However, we recognise that in implementing the new child support
scheme arrangements and introducing a complex new IT system that there will be teething problems. Where problems occur we aim to respond quickly and to ensure that these do not adversely affect the client.
A report on progress in the implementation of the new child support scheme was placed in the Library on 14 July 2003.