(2) what Liberata’s target is for the time taken to make payments collected from bailiffs to parents with care; and in what percentage of cases Liberata has met this target.
The administration of the Child Support Agency is the matter for the Chief Executive. He will write to my hon. Friend with the information requested.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 18 July 2006:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
You also asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what Liberata’s target is for the time taken to make payments collected from bailiffs to parents with care; and in what percentage of cases Liberata has met this target.
The Department of Work and Pensions contract with Liberata requires the Agency to utilise their services for the payment of invoices, court charges and some manual payments to clients.
Liberata do not deal with the payment of child support monies collected by a bailiff company. This is solely an Agency function.
I hope this information is helpful.
The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Hilary Reynolds, dated 18 July 2006:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive. As he is out of the country, I am responding on his behalf.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what bonuses relating to performance were paid to staff managing the EDS contract at the Child Support Agency in each of the last four years for which figures are available.
All people employed by the Department for Work and Pensions may qualify for performance related pay. The performance related pay arrangements operate on a sliding scale with over 90% of employees receiving a payment at the end of the performance year.
In addition, the Department operates a “Special Bonus” scheme, which rewards employees for exceptional achievements outside the requirements of their key work objectives.
The table below shows special bonus payments paid to people involved in managing the EDS contract. However, managing the EDS contract forms only part of their roles and responsibilities.
These payments arose from when the new child support computer system went live in March 2003.
Financial year Amount of payment (£) 2003-04 1,600.00 2004-05 0 2005-06 500.00
I hope you find this response helpful.
The administration of the Child Support Agency is the matter for the chief executive. He will write to my hon. Friend with the information requested.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 18 July 2006:
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Child Support Agency cases have been dealt with as clerical cases due to administrative errors on the part of his Department since January 2005.
Cases are taken off the new computer system (CS2) and progressed clerically if a technical fault occurs and the case cannot be progressed on the system.
If an administrative error is found to have occurred, then Agency staff will look to resolve that error while the case is still being operated on CS2. The case would only be progressed clerically if a technical fault subsequently occurred.
The total volume of cases being clerically progressed in each month from March 2005 to March 2006 is available in table 19 of the latest edition of the Agency's Quarterly Summary of Statistics (QSS), a copy of which is available in the House library, as well as on the internet at http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/csa.asp.
For convenience, these figures are attached.
I recognise that the figures given here differ from those given in response to PQ 21451. This is due to improvements in management information which now allows us to provide a more accurate picture of the Agency's clerical caseload.
I hope you find this helpful.
Number of new system clerical cases 2005 March 10,000 April 11,000 May 12,000 June 13,000 July 13,000 August 14,000 September 14,000 October 15,000 November 16,000 December 16,000 2006 January 17,000 February 17,000 March 19,000 Notes: 1. The above figures show the number of new and old scheme cases from CS2 that were being processed clerically, in the main due to technical IT problems that prevented them from being progressed on the CS2 system itself. 2. Note that the figures for later months are provisional, and may be subject to minor retrospective revisions. 3. Figures are rounded to the nearest thousand. 4. Due to limitations in management information, we are unable to include the number of cases that are being progressed clerically off the old system (CSCS).