The information requested is not available.
The information requested is not available.
The information requested is not available.
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:
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many telephone calls to the Child Support Agency (a) were received (b) received an engaged tone and (c) were disconnected during the interactive response process for the period April 2002 to June 2006 for (i) all calls and (ii) calls relating to the cases being processed on the CS2 computer system.
The latest information is contained in the two following tables. Note that the CS2 computer system did not become operational until March 2003. Therefore it is not possible to provide data for the year 2002-03.
Note also that point (c) has been interpreted as referring to the total number of calls abandoned (for example, where the client does not have a National Insurance number to hand and hangs up to go and find it before calling back) or lost during the automated part of the process, as the Agency cannot disconnect a call once it is in the IVR system.
Further information on the Agency's telephony performance is available in Table 16 of the latest edition of the Agency's Quarterly Summary of Statistics. A copy of this document is available in the House Library, as well as on the internet, at http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/csa.asp.
The Agency has shown a significant and sustained improvement in telephony performance, with respect to waiting times and the percentage of calls answered. Specifically:
In the quarter ending June 2006, the Agency answered 97% of telephone calls available to be answered, compared to 91% in the year ending March 2006.
In the quarter ending June 2006, average waiting time for all calls was 24 seconds, down from 59 seconds in the year ending March 2006.
I hope you find this helpful.
April 2002 to March 2003 April 2003 to March 2004 April 2004 to March 2005 April 2005 to March 2006 April 2006 to June 2006 Attempted customer calls to both CS2 and CSCS numbers 4,145,000 6,051,000 5,738,000 5,352,000 1,246,000 Calls for which outcome not recorded 45,000 145,000 48,000 42,000 2,000 Calls for which outcome recorded 4,100,000 5,906,000 5,689,000 5,310,000 1,244,000 Of which: Calls that received an engaged/busy tone 1— 498,000 126,000 50,000 30,000 Calls abandoned/lost during the IVR process. n/a 362,000 320,000 308,000 84,000 1 It is not possible to break down ineffective calls into those that did or did not receive an engaged tone for old system calls in 2002-03. Notes: 1. Data are presented for calls made regarding cases on the new system (CS2) and the old system (CSCS) combined. 2. "Attempted customer calls" excludes calls attempted outside working hours. 3. "Calls for which outcome not recorded" are those that were received but for which, due to data problems, the eventual outcome was not recorded. The volume of such calls has decreased significantly in the last three years as management information systems have improved. 4. "Calls for which outcome recorded" are those which were received and for which there is management information to track the eventual outcome. 5. IVR denotes the automated touch tone part of the process where customers enter their details via the telephone key pad. Once callers have cleared this part of the process, they enter a queue to be answered by a member of CSA staff. Note that there is no IVR process on the old system. 6. Numbers are rounded to the nearest thousand. Components may not sum to totals due to rounding.
Enabling and helping parents to make their own child support arrangements will help to create a simpler, more focused child support system. We are currently developing plans for introducing a new system of child support. As part of this we are considering the most cost effective way of moving to, and administering, the new system.
We are carrying out an intensive programme of work to determine the way forward and plan to publish final, detailed proposals in a White Paper in the autumn.