(2) how many Child Support Agency (CSA) cases were dealt with by the CSA’s clerical team in each month since January 2007;
(3) how many Child Support Agency (CSA) cases were transferred to the CSA clerical team in each month since January 2007.
The administration of the Child Support Agency is the matter for the chief executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 6 March 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 Child Support Agency cases remain suspended pending the opening of new clerical team centres. [180770]; and
How many Child Support Agency cases were dealt with by the CSA's clerical team in each month since January 2007. [180771]; and
How many Child Support Agency cases were transferred to the CSA clerical team in each month since January 2007. [180772]
The Agency contracted out the management of its clerical cases to Vertex Data Science Ltd in September 2006. They initially managed all aspects of the clerical case-load at the Bolton site on our behalf and to date have administered more than £30m to parents with care. In October 2007 the Agency renegotiated the contract to allow Vertex to focus on keeping maintenance flowing to children, and increased the resource dedicated to progressing clerical cases by retaining responsibility for new clerical cases until first payment stage.
Child maintenance applications are processed clerically where, due to technical issues, they cannot be advanced on our computer system. Unfortunately the process of identifying, transferring and assessing these cases can add significant delays. In addition the Agency's success in reducing the number of outstanding applications uncovered a larger than expected number of cases needing to be processed clerically.
New clerical cases are now progressed to first payment stage at our Stockport and Cumnock sites, with new clerical cases being referred to these sites to be assessed before referral to Bolton to be maintained. All cases identified as being appropriate for clerical handling have been moved, or are currently in the process of being moved to the dedicated clerical teams for progression, with the transfer due to be completed by 15 February 2008.
Clerical cases represent less than three per cent of all assessed cases. The Agency is continually working with its contractors to improve the service to these clients. In addition an upgrade to the computer system (CS2) due to be completed by the end of March 2008, will reduce the need for the Agency's clerical teams.
Information on the number of new clerical cases and the total number of clerical cases being dealt with each month is set out in the attached table.
I hope you find this answer helpful.
Month (2007) Number of new clerical cases Number of clerical cases January 703 27,654 February 910 28,509 March 871 29,256 April 1,347 30,568 May 950 30,914 June 769 31,665 July 1,477 33,094 August 1,093 33,783 September 601 33,600 October 532 34,049 November 620 33,294 December 500 33,265 Note: Each month the number of clerical cases increases to reflect new cases that are referred for clerical progression. Similarly, each month a number of existing clerical cases are closed and so are removed from the total number of clerical cases.