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Child Poverty
Chris Ruane:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many children were living in poverty
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in each of the last 25 years; and what estimate he has made of how many children will be living in poverty in each of the next five years. [175004]
Mr. Pond: Poverty and social exclusion are complex and multi-dimensional issues, affecting many aspects of peoples' lives—including their living standards, health, housing, the quality of their environment and not just low income. "Opportunity for all—fifth annual report", published on 18 September 2003, contains an annex of indicators tracking the Government's performance on tackling poverty and social exclusion across a range of domains much wider than income alone—amounting to around 50 indicators in total, 15 of which are child specific.
Information showing the proportion and number of children living in low income households going back to 1979 can be found in the publication "Households Below Average Income 1994–95 to 2002–03".
Steady progress is being made towards the PSA target to reduce by a quarter the number of children living in low income households by 2004–05. Between 1998–99 and 2002–03 the number of children in low-income households fell by 600,000 after housing costs and by 500,000 before housing costs. The latest data do not include the effect of tax credits introduced in April 2003, nor do they include the increases announced in the 2003 pre-Budget report.
The document "Measuring child poverty", published in December 2003 outlines the Government's measure of UK child poverty for the long term. This new measure will begin from 2004–05 and will be used to monitor our progress towards meeting our goal of halving the number of children in poverty by 2010.
All publications listed are available in the Library.
Child Support Agency
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 Committee on the Child Support Agency reforms, if he will list the problems that are to be (a) identified and (b) remedied by the recovery programme. [170040]
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 1 June 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 11 February to the Work and Pensions Committee on the Child Support Agency reforms, if he will list the problems that are to be (a) identified and (b) remedied by the recovery programme.
EDS are currently working to remedy four main groups of problems in relation to the computer service that they are contracted to provide to the Child Support Agency. These cover issues at the interface between the new Child Support system and existing Departmental systems (primarily those providing computer support for Income Support and Jobseeker Allowance), defects in the underlying application software, issues within the
- work management and telephony components and issues within the underlying system infrastructure (that will be required to support the greatly increased number of cases to be held on the system following the migration of cases from the existing computer system). EDS indicated at the Work and Pensions Select Committee hearing on 29 March that they are intending to complete this remedial work by October this year.
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many absent parents paid maintenance to the Child Support Agency for their children which because of computer problems was not paid to the parent with care (a) three, (b) six, (c) nine and (d) 12 months ago; and what the figure is for the most recent period for which figures are available. [171742]
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. Frank Field, dated 1 June 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, how many absent parents paid maintenance to the Child Support Agency for their children, which because of computer problems, was not paid to the parent with care (a) three, (b) six, (c) nine and (d) 12 months ago; and what the figure is for the most recent period for which figures are available.
I do not have the information that you seek. However, I can say that in the period 3 March 2003 to 29 April 2004, nearly 600,000 payments were made automatically by the new computer system to parents with care. The average period of time between the payments being received from the non-resident parent and paid to the parent with care was well within one month. In the same period 3,544 payments were made manually because of system difficulties. We estimate that the average time from receipt from the non-resident parent to payment to the parent with care for these cases was also within one month.
Mr. David: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will take steps to ensure that the Child Support Agency resolves the case of (a) Mr. Alan Jones of Bargoed, (b) Ms Sandra Roberts of Caerphilly and (c) Ms Angela Lawford of Nelson without further delay. [172591]
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. Wayne David, dated 1 June 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, if he will take steps to ensure that the Child Support Agency resolves the case of (a) Mr. Alan Jones of Bargoed, (b) Ms Sandra Roberts of Caerphilly and (c) Ms Angela Lawford of Nelson without further delay.
As individual cases are confidential, I will write to you separately about each of these cases. This is in line with paragraph 12, part 2 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many changes his Department sought to the design of the new Child Support Agency IT system. [172899]
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 Willetts, dated 1 June 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, how many changes his Department sought to the design of the new Child Support Agency IT system.
Under the terms of the Department's Private Finance Initiative based contract with EDS, the Agency is responsible for specifying its requirements leaving detailed design development and testing to EDS. I am therefore unable to provide the information you require. The Department's requirement is based on the 'operational vision for Child Support Reform' that was published in August 2000 and is available in the library of the House of Commons. There have been no material changes to this.
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in how many cases there are nil assessments in respect of Child Support Agency cases under (a) the old system and (b) the new system; and for what reasons no payment is required rather than a minimum payment. [174847]
Mr. Pond: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to my hon. Friend with the information requested.
Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. David Kidney, dated 1 June 2004:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary question abut 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, in how many cases there are nil assessments in respect of Child Support Agency cases under (a) the old system and (b) the new system; and for what reasons no payment is required rather than a minimum payment.
In the last full year of the 'old system' (2002/3) we received around 325,000 maintenance applications and in the same year we made around 38,000 assessments that resulted in a nil payment required. In the first year of the new system we received over 321,000 applications. In the same period we made around 12,000 calculations that resulted in a nil payment required.
Under the new arrangements a nil calculation rather than a minimum payment calculation can arise where the non-resident parent is:
A student;
A child within the meaning of section 55 of the Act—this generally means a child under 16 or under 19 and in full time non advanced education or a child under 18 in certain prescribed conditions;
A prisoner;
A person who is 16 or 17 years old and who is either, in receipt of income support or income-based jobseeker's allowance or is a member of a couple and their partner is in receipt of income support or income based jobseeker's allowance;
A person receiving an allowance in respect of work-based training for young people, or in Scotland, Skillseekers training;
A person who is resident in a care home or an independent hospital or is being provided with a care home service or an independent health care service and who is in receipt of certain specified pensions, benefits or allowances or who has the whole or part of the cost of his accommodation met by a local authority;
A patient in hospital who is in receipt of income support or state pension credit and has been an in-patient for more than 52 weeks;
A person in hospital in receipt of a specified benefit which has been reduced after 52 weeks in hospital;
A person who would be liable to pay the flat rate but his net weekly income, inclusive of any prescribed benefit pension or allowance and any prescribed benefit that he or his partner receive, is less than £5.00 per week; and
A person who would be liable to pay the flat-rate, because they or their partner are in receipt of a prescribed benefit, but they have shared care of the qualifying child for at least 52 nights per year.
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much the Child Support Agency has paid in redress payments in each year since it was set up. [174600]
Mr. Pond: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to my hon. Friend with the information requested.
Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. David Kidney, dated 1 June 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, how much the Child Support Agency has paid in redress payments in each year since it was set up.
No audited figures are available for the year to 31 March 1994. In years that followed the Agency has paid the following amounts by way of redress:
| Year to 31 March | Amount (£) |
|---|---|
| 1995 | 173,000 |
| 1996 | 174,000 |
| 1997 | 656,000 |
| 1998 | 1,101,000 |
| 1999 | 4,351,000 |
| 2000 | 3,075,000 |
| 2001 | 3,053,000 |
| 2002 | 2,590,000 |
| 2003 | 2,478,000 |
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the status is of the Department's contract with EDS for the Child Support Agency's new computer system; what changes have been made to the contractual terms; and what compensation he has secured from EDS. [174606]
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.
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Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. David Kidney, dated 1 June 2004:
I 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 current status is of the Department's contract with EDS for the Child Support Agency's new computer system; what changes have been made to the contractual terms; and what compensation he has secured from EDS.
The contract between the Department and EDS remains in effect. The last significant change to the terms of this contract was made in December 2002. In his Child Support Reform Statement to the House on 27 January 2003, the Secretary of State reported as follows:
"The system has proved to be more complex than had been originally thought and we have reached a negotiated agreement with EDS to share these costs, with them meeting their share under the contract. The amount the Government will pay has risen by around 7% over the term of the contract.
"While any extra costs are unwelcome, an increase on this scale is not at all unusual for a complex project of this kind and is justified in order to deliver this important reform."
Any further changes to the contract will be discussed with EDS as necessary, and such discussions would consider the question of compensation, as appropriate.
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