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Child Maintenance

Volume 464: debated on Monday 8 October 2007

14. To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average length of time taken to agree an award of child support was over the last 12 months. (156117)

The agency is currently clearing 72 per cent. of applications within 12 weeks. This is compared with just 53 per cent in March 2006, before implementation of the operational improvement plan.

I might add that 83 per cent. are cleared within the 26-week target against just 67 per cent. before the operational improvement plan.

For all applications cleared in June 2007, the average length of time taken to agree an award of child support was 91 days from first contact to clearance. It was 143 days before the operational improvement plan.