The administration of the child maintenance system is a matter for the Commissioner of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Child Maintenance Commissioner as the Child Support Agency is now the responsibility of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants in (a) Great Britain (b) each region and (c) each London borough did not receive the full child support payment in each of the last 12 months. [242177]
It should be noted that the Child Maintenance and Other Payments Act 2008 made changes to the way child maintenance is paid to parents with care in receipt of income based benefits. Prior to 27 October 2008, the Child Support Agency, on behalf of the Secretary of State, was required to retain a proportion of child maintenance received in respect of parents with care in receipt of income based benefits. From 27 October 2008, the Agency forwards all maintenance received and parents with care in receipt of benefits will need to inform Jobcentre Plus about any maintenance they have received.
The information you have requested in respect of the number of cases where the non-resident parent paid all, part or none of the child maintenance due in the previous quarter is included in the tables which have been placed in the Library.
Some non-resident parents will go to great lengths to avoid fulfilling their responsibilities to their children. The Child Support Agency has made improvements to how it is collecting and enforcing maintenance and is now consistently collecting and arranging record amounts of child maintenance, with over £1.1 billion collected or arranged in the year to the end of December 2008.
I hope you find this answer helpful.
Number Percentage None Full Over 1-20 Over 20-40 Over 40- 60 Over 60-80 Over 80 to under 100 Agency 276,800 402,500 15,700 20,700 23,300 37,000 48,500 Government Office Region East Midlands 20,500 29,700 1,000 1,500 1,700 2,800 3,400 Eastern 22,900 33,900 1,100 1,800 1,800 2,900 3,500 London 27,600 31,100 1,400 1,900 2,200 3,200 4,100 North East 17,500 23,700 1,300 1,400 1,700 2,500 3,400 North West 34,500 53,400 2,200 2,700 3,300 5,800 7,500 Scotland 25,500 35,200 1,700 2,100 2,200 3,300 4,700 South East 34,000 54,500 1,700 2,300 2,400 3,900 5,200 South West 23,100 40,400 1,200 1,600 1,800 3,100 3,800 Wales 15,000 24,400 900 1,200 1,400 2,400 3,400 West Midlands 26,000 38,400 1,700 2,200 2,500 3,600 4,600 Yorkshire/Humber 29,100 37,200 1,500 2,100 2,300 3,500 4,600 London local authority Barking and Dagenham 1,160 1,220 40 60 70 120 160 Barnet 1,000 910 50 50 50 70 120 Bexley 1,070 1,460 40 50 80 110 140 Brent 750 820 30 40 70 90 130 Bromley 920 1260 40 50 80 80 120 Camden 570 590 30 30 30 50 90 City of London 10 10 — — — — — Croydon 1,770 1,910 110 130 130 200 260 Ealing 970 1,170 50 80 110 180 130 Enfield 1,320 1,260 70 80 100 180 200 Greenwich 1,210 1,220 70 90 100 200 210 Hackney 690 750 50 50 50 110 110 Hammersmith and Fulham 490 440 30 30 50 90 140 Haringey 890 790 50 70 70 70 120 Harrow 510 720 20 50 40 110 40 Havering 750 1,350 30 60 90 50 140 Hillingdon 940 1,140 50 80 70 70 150 Hounslow 840 1,200 40 50 80 110 150 Islington 850 790 30 50 60 90 110 Kensington and Chelsea 320 390 10 20 20 20 60 Kingston upon Thames 320 540 20 30 20 60 50 Lambeth 1,330 1,100 100 90 110 140 200 Lewisham 1,490 1,350 80 140 130 170 150 Merton 660 790 40 70 50 70 100 Newham 950 990 50 70 80 90 140 Redbridge 810 970 40 40 50 90 130 Richmond upon Thames 330 600 30 10 10 20 50 Southwark 1,400 1,350 80 100 110 170 180 Sutton 610 1,030 50 30 50 120 80 Tower Hamlets 700 710 40 50 70 60 90 Waltham Forest 860 1,010 40 60 60 90 210 Wandsworth 740 780 40 80 70 100 110 Westminster 390 500 30 30 40 40 70
The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have therefore asked the Child Maintenance Commissioner to write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Child Maintenance Commissioner as the Child Support Agency is now the responsibility of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many new applications have been made to the Child Support Agency by (a) parents with care claiming income support and (b) other parents with care in each of the last 24 months.
Information on the number of applications received each month is routinely published in Table 2.1 of the Child Support Agency Quarterly Summary of Statistics (QSS). The latest copy of which is in the House of Commons library or online at the following link:
http://www.childmaintenance.org/publications/statistics.html
The Child Maintenance and other Payments Act 2008 changed the nature of the relationship between the child maintenance and benefits systems; ending the compulsion on parents with care in receipt of income based benefits to use the Child Support Agency. Prior to 14 July 2008 all parents with care making a new application for either Income Support or income based Jobseekers Allowance were compelled to make an application for child maintenance to the Child Support Agency. The Agency therefore recorded information on new applications distinguishing between those notified by Jobcentre Plus in respect of parents claiming Income Support and Jobseekers Allowance or those which were classed as a ‘private’ application made by either parent without compulsion.
Such information as is available on child maintenance applications by source is provided in the attached table.
Current scheme applications by source of applicationJobcentre Plus applicationsPrivate applicationsJanuary 200719,0005,600February 200727,7005,900March 200721,4005,900April 200716,5005,900 May 200718,8006,000June 200719,6006,400July 200718,6006,100August 200720,3006,400September 200718,6006,400October 200720,3007,100November 200720,9006,100December 200714,1004,000January 200821,3006,900February 200820,5006,500March 200815,7006,000April 200817,8006,700May 200816,2006,300June 200817,4006,700July 200818,5006,700August 200810,6005,900September 20085,1006,800October 20089007,000November 2008—7,300December 2008—5,300 Notes:1. A change in legislation in October 2008 removed the compulsion for parents with care on income based benefit (Income Support or Jobseeker’s Allowance (Income Based)) to pursue a claim for child support through the Agency. After this date, it is expected that some parents with care will opt to end their child support claim with CSA. This can be seen as a fall in overall caseload after October 2008.2. In the run up to the change, a further legislative repeal in July 2008 means that single parents making a new claim for income based benefit will no longer be referred to CSA. Some will make direct arrangements with the Agency, but they are not compelled to do so. This change can be seen as a huge fall (to zero) in the numbers of potential new claims received directly from Jobcentre Plus from October 2008.3. All cases received from October 2008 were classed as private intake. Any cases that were received from this time will be classed as private intake regardless of benefit status.4. Jobcentre Plus applications include all applications originating from Jobcentre Plus where the parent with care is in receipt of Income Support or income based Jobseekers’ Allowance at the time of application. It is not possible to identify those on Income Support separately.