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 13 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, what the percentage change in money outstanding in support payments in cases being dealt with by the Child Support Agency was between (a) April 2006 and March 2007 and (b) each month between April 2006 and March 2007. [183208]
Information on the amount of debt outstanding is published in table 22 of the quarterly summary of statistics. This shows the outstanding debt balance for 2005/06 was £3.5 billion, which increased to £3.7 billion for 2006/07 an increase of 5.5 per cent. The agency has been successful at reducing the rate of growth from around £23 million per month during 2004/05 to around £20 million per month during 2005/06 to around £16 million per month during 2006/07.
The table below provides the monthly percentage change in debt.
Debt (£ billion) Percentage increase April 2006 3.51 0.54 May 2006 3.53 0.55 June 2006 3.55 0.49 July 2006 3.57 0.55 August 2006 3.59 0.51 September 2006 3.60 0.38 October 2006 3.62 0.37 November 2006 3.63 0.40 December 2006 3.65 0.43 January 2007 3.67 0.67 February 2007 3.69 0.44 March 2007 3.69 0.02
I hope you find this answer helpful.
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 13 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 non-resident parents with outstanding debt with the Child Support Agency are living abroad; and what the total amount is of maintenance owed by non-resident parents living abroad in each of the last 10 years for which information is available. [185916]
At the end of November 2007, there were 5,000 cases on the new computer system (CS2) where a non-resident parent with debt was recorded as living outside the UK. The total debt recorded on these cases was £26,143,000.
No information is available for the number of cases held on the old computer system (CSCS) with outstanding debt where the non-resident parent lives abroad.
Information on the level of debt where the non-resident parent lives outside the UK is not available prior to February 2007.
I hope you find this answer helpful.