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 Stephen Geraghty, dated 21 June 2007:
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 asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many deduction of earnings orders the Child Support Agency had in place in each month since January 2000; and if he will make a statement.
Such information as is available, is presented in the attached table.
I hope you find this answer helpful.
Month ending Cases with DEO or DER as method of maintenance collection February 2000 138,400 May 2000 141,700 August 2000 142,000 November 2000 141,300 February 2001 141,100 May 2001 140,100 August 2001 140,100 November 2001 138,500 February 2002 140,000 May 2002 138,600 August 2002 138,400 November 2002 139,000 February 2003-July 2004 1— August 2004 132,900 September 2004 133,800 October 2004 134,500 November 2004 136,000 December 2004 141,300 January 2005 138,000 February 2005 139,800 March 2005 141,300 April 2005 142,100 May 2005 142,900 June 2005 144,500 July 2005 146,400 August 2005 148,600 September 2005 149,900 October 2005 151,300 November 2005 153,000 December 2005 153,700 January 2006 155,100 February 2006 156,200 March 2006 158,600 April 2006 160,100 May 2006 161,600 June 2006 162,600 July 2006 164,200 August 2006 165,200 September 2006 165,400 October 2006 165,500 November 2006 166,100 December 2006 158,100 January 2007 160,400 February 2007 160,600 March 2007 162,700 1 Robust information covering the period February 2003 to July 2004 is not available. Notes: 1. Numbers are rounded to the nearest hundred. 2. The table includes deduction from earnings orders (DEOs) and deduction from earnings requests (DERs). DERs are the equivalent of DEOs when a non-resident parent is a member of the Armed Forces. 3. The table above includes those old-scheme cases with either a Full Maintenance Assessment or an Interim Maintenance Assessment; plus those new-scheme cases with either a Full Maintenance Calculation, or a Default Maintenance Decision. New-scheme cases being processed clerically are excluded from this analysis. 4. Data prior to March 2003 are only available quarterly. March 2007 is the most recent available. 5. The volume of deductions from earnings orders/requests (DEO/Rs) decreased to 158,000 in December 2006. This sudden fall was caused by a fix to the new computer system to suspend 8,500 ineffective DEOs on cases where employers had informed the Agency that the non-resident parent on that case was no longer in their employment. These DEOs have been suspended and the Agency put together a recovery plan to trace those non-resident parents and restore compliance, through DEOs where appropriate.
(2) if he will list the (a) performance indicators and (b) performance targets which he has set for Vertex for its management of the Bolton office of the Child Support Agency.
[holding answer 12 June 2007]: 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 Stephen Geraghty, dated 21 June 2007:
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 asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what performance targets he has set for Vertex to respond to cases referred to the Child Support Agency Bolton office by or on behalf of hon. Members; and if he will make a statement. [141304]
and;
You also asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will list the (a) performance indicators and (b) performance targets which he has set for Vertex for its management of the Bolton office of the Child Support Agency. [142317]
Although the agency has contracted out the maintenance of its clerical cases to Vertex Data Science Ltd, the performance targets set by the Secretary of State apply to all Child Support cases regardless of whether they are clerical or not.
The Secretary of State targets for the current operation year are:
Number of children—By 31 March 2008, maintenance will be collected or have been arranged by the Agency on behalf of 720,000 children.
Total Maintenance Collection (Arrears)—Collect or have arranged £970 million in child maintenance between 1 April 2007 and 31 March 2008; of which at least £120 million maintenance will be arrears.
Maintenance Outcomes—By 31 March 2008, in 66% of cases across both the new and old schemes in which a liability to pay maintenance exists, the non-resident parent has either made a payment via the collection service or a Maintenance Direct arrangement is in place.
Uncleared applications to the New scheme—By 31 March 2008, the volume of uncleared new scheme applications will be no more than 140,000.
In addition, the Agency’s Client Service Standards, including responding to hon. Members correspondence applies to cases maintained by the Bolton office. We aim to reply to letters and either resolve complaints, or agree next steps, within three weeks of receiving them.
Vertex Data Science Ltd performance against these measures is continually reviewed to ensure they are supporting the Agency’s aim to deliver more money for more children.
I hope you find this answer helpful.
No estimate has been made of the number of children who would be lifted out of relative poverty if all non-resident parents were fully compliant with the payment of child support. To produce a robust estimate we would require information on the position in the income distribution of parents with care where the non-resident parent in the case is not fully compliant. This information is not available for all the relevant parents with care.