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Child Support Agency
Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list the total revenue collected for each year of operation of (a) Doncaster Child Support Agency field office and (b) Rotherham Child Support Agency field office for postal code area S64; and if he will indicate for (a) and (b) the (i) total running cost budget, (ii) total number of claims received and (iii) total number of (1) casual and (2) temporary staff employed. [40890]
Mr. Andrew Mitchell: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive, Miss Ann Chant. She will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Miss Ann Chant to Mr Martin Redmond, dated 16 October 1996:
I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about the Doncaster and Rotherham Child Support Agency Offices.
16 Oct 1996 : Column: 1023
As Field offices do not collect revenue, I am not able to provide you with any information. The assessment and subsequent collection of a maintenance is undertaken by the Child Support Agency Centres (CSACs). Once in a CSAC, it is not possible to attribute an individual case's yield to the field office at which it originated.
Since the inception of the Agency there have been several boundary changes within the Doncaster and Rotherham areas with both offices at some time being linked to others. In view of this, it is not possible to report on the running costs for these individual sites for either 1993/94 or 1994/95. This is also the case for details relating to both casual and temporary staff numbers.
In 1995/96, Doncaster and Rotherham because a combined area. For this year the running costs were £490,508 for staff and £14,415 for non staff. During the year the number of casual and fixed term contract employees fluctuated; on average one casual and one fixed term contract employee were employed. The number of claims received in the area was 5147.
In 1996/97, the staff costs are £474,279. There is no specific devolved budget for non staff costs in the current financial year as funds are allocated on a Divisional basis. The expenditure to date for the area is £10,181. There is currently one member of staff employed in the Doncaster/Rotherham area on a casual basis and there are three officers employed on fixed term contracts. The number of claims received in the current year (from April to September) is 2231.
I hope this is helpful.
Ms Lynne:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what has been the service availability of the Child Support Agency computer system in each week since 7 January. [40959]
| Week ending | Service availability (percentage) |
|---|---|
| 7 January 1996 | 99.9 |
| 14 January 1996 | 98.5 |
| 21 January 1996 | 98.8 |
| 28 January 1996 | 92.9 |
| 4 February 1996 | 99.7 |
| 11 February 1996 | 99.7 |
| 18 February 1996 | 95.5 |
| 25 February 1996 | 98.4 |
| 3 March 1996 | 100.0 |
| 10 March 1996 | 90.3 |
| 17 March 1996 | 100.0 |
| 24 March 1996 | 98.4 |
| 31 March 1996 | 98.6 |
| 7 April 1996 | 95.9 |
| 14 April 1996 | 97.6 |
| 21 April 1996 | 100.0 |
| 28 April 1996 | 99.9 |
| 5 May 1996 | 94.5 |
| 12 May 1996 | 99.2 |
| 19 May 1996 | 100.0 |
| 26 May 1996 | 99.9 |
| 2 June 1996 | 99.7 |
| 9 June 1996 | 99.8 |
| 16 June 1996 | 99.6 |
| 23 June 1996 | 89.6 |
| 30 June 1996 | 99.9 |
| 7 July 1996 | 98.8 |
| 14 July 1996 | 100.0 |
| 21 July 1996 | 100.0 |
| 28 July 1996 | 100.0 |
| 4 August 1996 | 74.4 |
| 11 August 1996 | 100.0 |
| 18 August 1996 | 98.6 |
| 25 August 1996 | 99.8 |
| 1 September 1996 | 88.8 |
| 8 September 1996 | 98.6 |
| 15 September 1996 | 98.6 |
| 22 September 1996 | 99.9 |
| 29 September 1996 | 100.0 |
| 6 October 1996 | 99.3 |
Ms Lynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what changes have been introduced or are in the process of being implemented as to grade and level of training for civil servants carrying out good cause interviews. [40973]
Mr. Mitchell: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive, Miss Ann Chant. She will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Miss Ann Chant to Ms Liz Lynne, dated 16 October 1996:
I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about the Child Support Agency Good Cause process.
16 Oct 1996 : Column: 1024
Mr. Mitchell:
The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive, Miss Ann Chant. She will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Miss Ann Chant to Ms Liz Lynne, dated 16 October 1996:
I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about the Child Support Agency post opening arrangements.
Mr. Ainger:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security in what ways his Department takes account of the needs of pensioner households mainly dependent on benefits when uprating the old age pension. [41009]
Mr. Burt:
Current legislation provides for the annual uprating of the state pension in line with the rise in prices. In this way, we have maintained the value of the state pension to provide a solid foundation for retirement at a time of strong pressure on public spending.
Mr. Ainger:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many pensioners were solely dependent on their old age pension and means-tested benefits in each of the last five years. [41000]
Ms Lynne:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what procedures will exist to ensure that the opening and sorting of Child Support Agency post by Royal Mail staff will not lead to breaches of confidentiality; and what assessment he has made of the extent to which individual letters have to be read by Royal Mail staff to be effectively sorted. [40985]
Following the Government's acceptance of the Social Security Select Committee's recommendation that there should be a review of the Good Cause process, the Child Support Agency produced the Good Cause Report on 2 April 1996 which included 24 recommendations.
The Government has accepted all 24 recommendations which included the training and grading requirements as appropriate, for staff involved in the revised Good Cause process.
Action to implement these recommendations is well under way.
I hope this is helpful.
Following a feasibility study carried out last year, the Agency decided to contract out its post opening requirements to the Royal Mail.
Client confidentiality is of the utmost importance to the Agency, and was an important consideration in taking this decision. The Agency ran a pilot exercise to test procedures, and issues such as security and client confidentiality.
In providing a sorting service to the Agency, Royal Mail are required merely to scan items of mail to ascertain their correct destination point. This is identical to the procedure previously undertaken by Agency staff. The volumes involved and the large scale use of machinery in the process makes the reading of individual letters and forms an impractical proposition. In addition, all Royal Mail staff are required to sign the Official Secrets Act: just as staff employed by the Child Support Agency.
I hope this is helpful.
| Pensioner units | 1989 | 1990 | 1990-91 | 1992 | 1993 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single pensioners | 790,000 | 740,000 | 700,000 | 670,000 | 500,000 |
| (18 per cent.) | (17 per cent.) | (16 per cent.) | (15 per cent.) | (11 per cent.) | |
| Pensioner couples | 80,000 | 180,000 | 150,000 | 140,000 | 120,000 |
| (3 per cent.) | (7 per cent.) | (6 per cent.) | (5 per cent. | (4 per cent.) | |
| All pensioner units | 880,000 | 920,000 | 860,000 | 800,000 | 610,000 |
| (13 per cent.) | (13 per cent.) | (12 per cent.) | (11 per cent.) | (9 per cent.) |
Source:
The Pensioners' Incomes Series (based upon data from the Family Expenditure Surveys).
Notes:
1. Income-related benefits include housing benefit, income support and benefits to pay for local taxes (i.e. rate rebate, community charge benefit and council tax benefit). The Christmas bonus has also been included.
2. All estimates of numbers are shown to the nearest 10,000 pensioner units. A pensioner unit is defined as being either a single person aged over state pension age, or a couple where the head, or husband, is aged over SPA. Percentage estimates are shown to the nearest whole percentile.
3. The Pensioners Income Series gives single calendar estimates. However in 1991 one quarter of the family expenditure survey sample was omitted because of problems following the delayed issue of community charge bills in April 1991. As a result the sample size in that year it too small to provide sufficiently reliable estimates of pensioners' incomes. For this reason the remaining data for 1991 have combined with that for 1990 to produce estimates for the combined calendar years 1990 and 1991.
16 Oct 1996 : Column: 1025
16 Oct 1996 : Column: 1025
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