[holding answer 21 January 2008]: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 19 February 2008:
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 live Child Support Agency claims there were in Peterborough in each year since 2001; and if he will make a statement. [180860]
The attached table shows all live cases where the parent with care has a Peterborough address broken down to show their assessment type and whether any maintenance is due to be paid.
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Interim maintenance assessment Nil maintenance liability Positive maintenance liability September 2007 10 890 1,660 September 2006 10 940 1,330 September 2005 10 900 1,230 September 2004 20 900 1,050 September 2003 20 910 990 August 2002 40 1,040 1,300 August 2001 40 1,000 1,240 Notes: 1. Includes all cases with an assessment/calculation on both old and new scheme. 2. September data have been provided each year from 2003 onwards. Prior to this only quarterly data are available so August data have been used. 3. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. 4. Based on the postcode of the parent with care.
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 19 February 2008:
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, if he will commission research to establish how frequently Child Support Agency clients are advised by the Agency to contact their hon. Member to make progress on their case. [181193]
The Agency does not gather data on the number of clients referred directly to Members of Parliament for resolution of their cases, as this does not form part of the Agency’s complaints process. Under the Agency’s Operational Improvement Plan, the Agency reviewed the complaints handling process, and designed a new streamlined approach which focuses on earlier resolution through the introduction of specialist caseworkers responsible for resolving all aspects of our clients’ complaints.
Complaints Resolution Teams based in each of our main centres take responsibility for resolving all complaints. If having been through this process the client still remains dissatisfied, the Agency’s Complaints Review Team based at Durham House, Washington will review their case. This two stage process aims to promote earlier and complete resolution and reduce the number of complaints escalated to the Chief Executive, Ministers and the Independent Case Examiner (ICE).
The Agency therefore will advise clients of the options open to them should they be dissatisfied about how their case has been handled and this will include advising a client to contact their MP, should the client wish to take issue with current child support policy. It is however clearly inappropriate for the Agency to direct clients to their Member of Parliament if the Agency has mishandled their case.
Should the hon. Member continue to find that his constituents are advised to contact him, I would like to be informed.
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(2) what proportion of total child support debt is owed (a) to the Secretary of State and (b) to parents with care;
(3) what proportion of the £3.7 billion child support arrears relates to cases on the (a) old child support computer system and (b) the new child support 2 computer system.
The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 19 February 2008:
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 cases the Child Support Agency holds which have outstanding debt. [181249]; and
What proportion of total child support debt is owed (a) to the Secretary of State and (b) to parents with care. [181250]; and
What proportion of the £3.7 billion child support arrears relates (a) to cases on the old child support computer system and (b) the new child support computer system. [181252]
The Agency reports the amount of outstanding debt in its Annual Report and Accounts, the latest version of which is held in the House of Commons library. The information requested is supplementary to that reported and this additional analysis therefore does not include the provisions applied as a result of the annual debt analysis exercise within the Agency’s accounts.
This debt is owed by non-resident parents as a result of their failure to meet their responsibilities to their children. The Agency is committed to recovering as much of the outstanding debt as possible and is significantly increasing collections under the Operational Improvement Plan.
At the end of November 2007, the latest period for which these figures are available, the Child Support Agency had 1,056,500 cases with outstanding debt. Of the total debt outstanding, we estimate that 53 per cent is owed to the Secretary of State and 47 per cent to parents with care. Of this debt, we estimate that 56 per cent related to cases on the old child support computer system, and 44 per cent to cases on the new child support computer system.
The Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill proposes to strengthen and streamline the range of enforcement and debt management powers that will be at the disposal of the Child Maintenance Enforcement Commission. These will be used both to encourage ongoing compliance to prevent the new debt building up, and to enable more of the accumulated debt to be recovered.
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The information requested is not available.