The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have asked the Child Maintenance Commissioner to write to the hon. Member with the information requested and I have seen the response.
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 what steps her Department is taking to reduce the time taken for the Child Support Agency to pass on to resident parents payments which are not administered by means of electronic transfer. [300250]
When the CSA receive the child maintenance payment from the non-resident parent by an electronic transfer it takes up to one day to process the payment and pass it on to the parent with care. Where a cheque is received it can take up to three days to clear.
Parents with care are encouraged to receive maintenance payments from the CSA by electronic transfer into their bank accounts, rather than by cheque which can take two days to produce and then be posted to the parent with care before the funds can be drawn.
The CSA’s preferred method of payment for non-resident parents using the collection service is direct debit or a deduction from earnings order, since both are significantly more reliable and resilient than other methods. The benefits of using direct debit or a deduction from earnings are promoted when agreeing a method of payment with non-resident parents.
I hope you find this answer helpful.