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18 Nov 2004 : Column 1868W—continued
Child Support Agency
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how long the longest CSA enforcement case in respect of a self-employed non-resident parent has been outstanding. [190272]
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 Mike Isaac to Mr. Chris Ruane, dated 18 November 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. As he is currently on leave I am replying on his behalf.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how long the longest Child Support Agency enforcement case in respect of a self-employed non-resident parent has been outstanding.
The case that has been with our enforcement teams for the longest period of time was first referred around 10 years ago. The non-resident parents main source of income is derived from self-employment. The case is currently being taken forward for committal proceedings.
The average length of time a case remains with enforcement before it is cleared is 1 year 5 months. This represents the time taken from acceptance until the liability order is paid in full or the non-resident parent has proved that he is meeting his maintenance liability.
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what investigations he has made into the Child Support Agency computer system being unable to process payments into banks with a sort code commencing with 0; and what assessment he has made of the number of people affected by this problem. [193494]
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 Sandra Gidley, dated 18 November 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 investigations he has made to the Child Support Agency computer system being unable to process payments into bank accounts with a sort code commencing with 0; and what assessment he has made of the number of people affected by this problem?
The Child Support Agency computer system is able to automatically process payments into bank accounts with a sort code commencing with a "0".
The computer system does however have a cosmetic display error, which means that the leading "0" of the bank sort code is not correctly displayed to the caseworker. This may have resulted in some clients being incorrectly advised, that the Agency was unable to process payments into that bank account. Guidance has been issued to caseworkers to ensure that when dealing with clients, they are aware that the bank sort code whilst not correctly displayed, is able to be processed correctly, enabling payment to those bank accounts.
Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when figures on the Child Support Agency new system (a) compliance and (b) throughput will be available; and what estimates have so far been made. [193618]
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 18 November 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, when figures on the CSA new system (a) compliance and (b) throughput will be available; and what estimates have so far been made.
The issue of compliance was addressed in the most recent quarterly report that was made available in the House of Commons Library on 28 October 2004. The management information provided by EDS does not yet permit us to provide a reliable estimate of throughput.
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of each method of enforcement of payment of child support used by the Child Support Agency. [193836]
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 18 November 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 assessment he has made of the effectiveness of each method of enforcement of payment of child support used by the Child Support Agency.
The recent review of enforcement concluded that changes were necessary in a number of areas. These included the need for better management information. This is being taken forward and we are progressively gaining a broad picture of the effectiveness of each method of enforcement. This knowledge base needs to be developed further before reliable conclusions can be drawn from this.
Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which Child Support Agency senior managers received performance related bonuses in 2003–04; and what the value of each of those bonuses was. [193925]
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 18 November 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, which Child Support Agency senior managers received performance related bonuses in 2003–04; and what the value of each of those bonuses was.
In accordance with the requirements of Government Accounting, a full disclosure of the remuneration of Child Support Agency Directors is included with the Agency accounts for the year to 31 March 2004.
Mr. Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what contingency plans he has prepared in relation to computer systems used by the Child Support Agency. [195811]
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 Mike Isaac to Mr. Paul Goodman, dated 18 November 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. As he is currently on leave I am replying on his behalf.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what contingency he has prepared in relation to computer systems currently used by the Child Support Agency.
The new computer and telephony service provided by EDS contains a number of defects. The Child Support Agency is working closely with EDS to resolve these and they are progressively being remedied. Where we are unable to use the IT to progress cases, we use a series of manual workarounds. Exceptionally, where these prove unsuccessful, a small number of cases are progressed entirely clerically.
Mr. Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many complaints the Child Support Agency has received from members of the public in relation to the computer systems used by the agency since their introduction. [195812]
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 Mike Isaac to Mr. Paul Goodman, dated 18 November 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. As he is currently on leave I am replying on his behalf.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints the Child Support Agency has received from members of the public in relation to the computer systems currently used by the agency since their introduction.
Statistical data on complaints received in relation to the computer systems used by the Agency has only been collected since June 2003. Since then there have been 2196 complaints.
The breakdown of complaints in relation to computer system error and delay since June 2003 is as follows:
Mr. Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many complaints the Child Support Agency has received from members of the public in relation to the telephone systems used by the Child Support Agency since their introduction. [195814]
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 Mike Isaac to Mr. Paul Goodman dated 18 November 2004:
In reply to your recent Parliament Question about the Child Support Agency the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive. As he is currently on leave I am replying on his behalf.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints the Child Support Agency has received from members of the public in relation to the telephone systems currently used by the Child Support Agency since their introduction.
The Agency did not maintain a record of complaints received from members of the public in relation to the telephone systems used until April 2004. Since then there have been 1240 complaints received.
Mr. Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his latest estimate is of the backlog of new claims held by the Child Support Agency. [195816]
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 Mike Isaac to Mr. Paul Goodman, dated 18 November 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. I am providing this in his absence
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his latest estimate is of the backlog of new claims held by the Child Support Agency.
At the end of September 2004 there were around 240,000 new applications recorded on the new IT system awaiting a decision under the new scheme legislation. Typically 40% of cases will close before reaching assessment. Applications close for a variety of reasons, for example if the parents reconcile.
Mr. Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his latest estimate is of the average time it takes the Child Support Agency to bring cases from first application to assessment. [195817]
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 Mike Isaac to Mr. Paul Goodman, dated 18 November 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. As he is currently on leave I am replying on his behalf.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his latest estimate is of the average time it takes the Child Support Agency to bring cases from first application to assessment.
The management information provided by EDS does not yet permit us to provide a reliable estimate of throughput.
Mr. Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many stuck cases were held by the Child Support Agency during the last calendar year, broken down by month. [195818]
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 Mike Isaac to Mr. Paul Goodman dated 18 November 2004:
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many stuck cases were held by the Child Support Agency during the last calendar year broken down by month.
The management information is not available for the calendar year 2003, however, I can provide figures for 2004.
The information in the table shows the number of stuck cases that relate to our most problematic classifications:
18 Nov 2004 : Column 1873W
Mr. Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of eligible parents received their first payment from the Child Support Agency within the time limit of six weeks during the last calendar year, broken down by month. [195819]
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 Mike Isaac to Mr. Paul Goodman, dated 18 November 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. I am providing this in Mr. Smith's absence.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many parents and what proportion of eligible parents received their first payment from the Child Support Agency within the time limit of six weeks during the last calendar year broken down by month.
I am unable to provide the information that you have requested because of the current limitations with management information provided by EDS.
Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his written ministerial statement of 28 October 2004, Official Report, columns 55–57WS, on the new child support scheme progress report, what percentage the sum of £12.1 million retained by the Child Support Agency (CSA) represents with respect to the total payments (a) due to and (b) paid to EDS between 3 March 2003 and 19 September 2004; what percentage of the total number of clearances, calculations and closures the current achievement rate of over 238,000 for the new child support scheme represents; upon what criteria reasonable assessments of compliance are to be based; what the definition of (i) cash compliance and (ii) case compliance is; and upon what criteria the estimate of the number of parents who receive child maintenance premium payments by way of a disregard to their income support/ income-based jobseeker's allowance is based. [196268]
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 Mike Isaac to Ms Annabelle Ewing, dated 18 November 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. As he is currently on leave I am replying on his behalf.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to his Written Ministerial Statement of 28th October Official Report columns 55–57WS on the new child support scheme progress report what percentage the sum of 12.1 million retained by the Child Support Agency (CSA) represents with respect to the total payments (a) due to and (b) paid to EDS between 3rd March 2003 and 19th September 2004; what percentage of the total number of clearances calculations and closures the current achievement rate of over 238,000 for the new child support scheme represents; upon what criteria reasonable assessments of compliance are to be based; what the definition of (i) cash compliance and (ii) case compliance is; and upon what criteria the estimate of the number of parents who receive child maintenance premium payments by way of a disregard to their income support/ income-based jobseeker's allowance is based.
Payments under the CSR contract to EDS between 3 March 2003 and 19 September 2004 amount to £62.08million. During the same period the Department has retained £12.1m for performance issues, representing just over 16% of the sum invoiced.
As at September 2004 the Agency processed 238,000 cases, equivalent to 50% of its 478,000 intake. Of the cases processed, 140,000 (59%) resulted in a calculation of maintenance and 98,000 (41%) were closed. We know that historically 40% of 'new scheme' intake has resulted in a closure and we expect the same to be true for those applications waiting to be processed.
Cash compliance compares the amount of regular maintenance and/or arrears collected through the Agency's collection service against the amount due in the period. Case compliance compares the number of cases on which regular maintenance and/or arrears is paid against the number of cases for which maintenance is due in the period.
We are now receiving the necessary management information on the number of cases where payment is being made and the number of cases where payment is due to enable us to make accurate assessments of the compliance levels we are achieving.
The number of Child Maintenance Premium payments made includes those first payments made by the Agency to the parents with care who are in receipt of the qualifying benefits, together with an estimate of those parents with care who will be receiving the payment directly as a disregard to their Income Support/income-based Jobseekers Allowance.
Tony Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the reasons are for the proposed reduction in the Child Support Agency service in Workington. [196381]
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 Mike Isaac to Mr. Tony Cunningham, dated 18 November 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. I am providing this in Mr Smith's absence.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the reasons are for the proposed reduction in the Child Support Agency service in Workington.
Child support services in Workington are delivered by our Wales and North West England Business Unit with its headquarters based in Birkenhead. Those services include a face to face interviewing service which is currently delivered by two staff based in Workington. The demand for our face to face service
- nationally has changed over the past two years which resulted in our subjecting it to an internal review. As a result we are replacing the existing service with two new services:
a customer service which provides office interviews/home visits to deal with enquiries from our customers which cannot be cleared by telephone;
a compliance service which will provide inspectoral visits to non-compliant employers and clients and which will present enforcement cases in local courts.
We are reducing the number of staff and the locations where they are based. Whilst Workington will receive an equivalent level of service to the rest of the country we will no longer be basing our staff there.
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his answers of 28 October 2004, Official Report, column 1373W, and 4 November, to the hon. Member for Northavon (Mr. Webb), Official Report, column 417W, on the Child Support Agency, if he will now provide the information requested by the right hon. Member for Birkenhead. [199110]
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 18 November 12004:
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, pursuant to his answers of 28 October, Official Report, column 1373W, and 4 November, to the honourable Member for Northavon, Official Report, column 417W, on the Child Support Agency, if he will now provide the information requested by the right hon. Member for Birkenhead.
I remain unable to provide the information you require. I can however provide an update on the number of cases that have successfully transferred from the 'old scheme' to the 'new scheme'. Since March 2003 these amount to around 20,000 cases.
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the reasons were for the delay in rolling out the new Child Support Agency assessment rules to all absent parents; and what steps he is taking to resolve the problems in rolling out the new scheme. [195738]
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 Mike Isaac to Mr. Bob Spink, dated 18 November 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. As he is currently on leave I am replying on his behalf.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the reasons were for the delay in rolling out the new Child Support Agency assessment rules to all absent parents; and what steps he is taking to resolve the problems in rolling out the new scheme.
The new computer and telephony service provided by EDS contains a number of defects. The Child Support Agency is working closely with EDS and the defects are progressively being remedied. EDS will then be in a position to provide the software changes needed to support the migration of cases from the old to the new computer system and to convert existing maintenance assessments into new calculations. In the meantime, maintenance
- is still flowing under the old scheme and we do not want to jeopardise this by transferring cases too early. Ministers will want to be satisfied that the new arrangements are working well for new applications before making any decisions about migration and conversion.
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