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Child Support Agency

Mr. Caton: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what prioritisation criteria will be used in the process of transferring existing Child Support Agency cases to the new assessment system. [175560]

Mr. Pond: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford (Dr. Stoate) on 27 January 2004, Official Report, column 341W.

Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his oral statement of 11 February to the Work and Pensions Select Committee, on the Child Support Agency reforms, if he will list the milestones against which the success of the recovery programme will be judged. [170452]

Mr. Pond: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.

Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. Steve Webb, dated 27 May 2004:

In reply to your recent Parliamentary questions 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, pursuant to his Oral Statement of 11th February, to the Work and Pensions Select Committee, on the Child Support Agency reforms, 11th February, if he will list the milestones against which the success of the recovery programme will be judged.

In accordance with our agreed plans EDS made enhancements to their computer service for Child Support Reform on 26 January and 22 March. They made enhancements to their telephony service on 9 and 10 January and 29 March. We have agreed plans in place covering a further upgrade to their service on 7 June 2004. We are aware that EDS currently have plans for further upgrades
 

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in August and October. This is in line with their stated intention to complete their remedial work by October 2004. We are still discussing the final content and delivery timetable for their remaining plans and until those are agreed I am unable to provide any further milestones.

Dr. Iddon: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for what reason a non-resident father's Child Support Agency payment stops when a child is born to that father in a new relationship. [174588]

Mr. Pond: When a new child is born the non-resident parent's liability will be recalculated to take account of their change in responsibilities.

Under the old scheme, if a non-resident parent had previously been assessed to pay the minimum amount of maintenance (currently £5.60 a week) the birth of a new child would mean that they were exempt from this minimum payment.

Under the new scheme, a flat rate of maintenance (usually £5.00 a week) is payable even if there is a child present in the non-resident parent's household.

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Child Support Agency's powers (a) to obtain sufficient information to make an assessment of child support and (b) to enforce payment of assessed child support; and what plans he has to alter and extend these powers. [174599]

Mr. Pond: The Child Support Agency has a wide range of powers both to obtain the necessary information and to enforce payments of child maintenance where necessary. I have no plans to change these.

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in what circumstances separated parents may (a) seek a court order for the assessment of child support and (b) register with the Child Support Agency a voluntary agreement for child support as alternatives to seeking an assessment of child support by the Child Support Agency. [174601]

Mr. Pond: Parents who do not already have a court order cannot usually make arrangements for child support through the court unless the court is converting a written maintenance agreement to a consent order.

Parents with care in receipt of Income Support or income-based Jobseeker's Allowance are required by law to co-operate with the Child Support Agency. Any existing form of court order or agreement will be superseded by a maintenance calculation which must be honoured.

The Child Support Agency can only calculate child maintenance in accordance with the legislation. It cannot register a voluntary agreement for child support.

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for what reasons of data protection the Child Support Agency may withhold from a client information about a change of circumstances of the person liable to pay child support when such change affects the amount of child support payable. [174604]

 
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Mr. Pond: Regulation 9A of the Information, Evidence and Disclosure Regulations (1992) covers the information which may be disclosed to a third party. This provides that only information which is essential to the understanding of how the maintenance is calculated will be made available to either party.

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Child Support Agency's new computer system provided by EDS. [174605]

Mr. Pond: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.

Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. David Kidney, dated 27 May 2004:

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 recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Child Support Agency's new computer system provided by EDS.

The Agency meets with EDS on a regular basis to assess both the effectiveness of their current computer service and their plans for remedying known defects. The service is progressively improving as defects are fixed. Ministers last reported to the House on the operational impacts of this on 21 April 2004.

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in what circumstances the income of the household of a person liable to pay child support rather than solely the liable person's income can be taken into account for the purpose of assessing child support. [174625]

Mr. Pond: The income of the partner of a non-resident parent is only taken into account when assessing child support in the old scheme. It is used to calculate the "protected level of income" within the formula. Without this information the Child Support Agency cannot make a final assessment. The non-resident parent might then be asked, in the interim, to pay a higher amount than his or her circumstances would otherwise demand.

Under the new scheme, the maintenance calculation is based only on the income of the non-resident parent, which could however include tax credit paid to another member of their household.

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he intends that child support cases under the old Child Support Agency system will be migrated to the new system. [174633]

Mr. Pond: I refer my hon. Friend to the written answer I gave the hon. Member for Castle Point (Bob Spink) on 18 December 2003, Official Report, column 1092W.

Child Tax Credit

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) if he will make a statement on the proposed timetable for transferring the child elements of jobseeker's allowance and income support to child tax credit payments; [166482]
 
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(2) if he will place in the Library a copy of the agreement reached between the Department and the Inland Revenue ensuring that families do not lose the child element of jobseeker's allowance and income support until child tax payments are guaranteed. [166542]

Mr. Pond: The transfer of income support and jobseeker's allowance cases on to child tax credit began on 6 April 2004 as planned. Families on income support and jobseeker's allowance who were already receiving child tax credit have started to receive support for their children solely through child tax credit. New claimants of income support and jobseeker's allowance are no longer awarded child allowances in those benefits, but receive child tax credit instead.

The automatic phased transfer on to child tax credit of the remaining families with children within income support and jobseeker's allowance is planned to begin from October 2004. Meanwhile, families will continue to receive the same level of support through their benefits as they would from child tax credit.

We have always recognised that it is important to ensure a successful and smooth migration for claimants of income support and income-based jobseeker's allowance on to child tax credit. We have therefore taken steps to ensure that those families will not lose the child element of jobseeker's allowance and income support until we have confirmation that child tax credit has been awarded. The technical design of the income support and jobseeker's allowance computer systems ensure this. The child and family elements will automatically continue to be paid until a confirmation that child tax credit has been awarded is received from Inland Revenue.

In April 2002, The Treasury published "The Child and Working Tax Credits" (HMT 2002), which made it clear that continuity of payment is of particular importance to us.

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