Supplementary memorandum submitted by
Independent Case Examiner (ICE) (CS 03A)
INQUIRY INTO THE PERFORMANCE OF THE CHILD
SUPPORT AGENCY
At the Committee on 21 July 2004, I offered
to add any additional information or clarification that I thought
would help the Committee's consideration of issues we touched
upon.
RUNNING "TWO"
SYSTEMS
This is perhaps a simplistic description of
the situation. The Agency currently has to run at least four systems
in tandem, namely:
I would not like to underestimate the complexity
of this task.
BACKLOGS
There are many cases awaiting action under both
old and new schemes.
In the case of the new scheme, some clients
have already waited over 18 months to have their maintenance applications
progressed. This is very worrying as some old scheme cases have
not been dealt with for years.
WHOLE CASE
APPROACH
I agreed with the Committee that this approach
was welcome. It is clear that people want to know who their case
officer (or team) is, so that they can contact someone who knows
about their case and can give them answers to questions that arise.
Unfortunately, as I understand it the new telephony
system allocates tasks to work streams (rather than named teams
or case officers). This means that each new task can be allocated
to another case officer (team). There is no central point of contact
and trying to speak to the person who dealt with your case last
may not help. Difficulties of this kind are exacerbated by the
lack of a notepad facility to allow people to give clients an
up to date picture of what has happened on their case. Problems
associated with telephony are a running theme through new scheme
referrals.
ENFORCEMENT
In our experience, clients do not complain that
the Agency is impotent or that it has insufficient powers. The
complaints we see, in the main, stem from failings on the part
of the Agency to pursue the measures at its disposal in a timely
and coherent manner.
INCREASING LEVELS
OF COMPLAINT
REFERRALS
The growing numbers of complaints about new
scheme cases are giving cause for concern. The root cause of most
of these complaints is a CS2 system fault, exacerbated by the
Agency's failure to then administer these cases appropriately.
In old scheme cases, referrals from parents
with care and non-resident parents have broadly been evenly split.
In new scheme referrals it is an 80:20 split. It may well be that
problems that have arisen to date have yet to impact on non-resident
parents in issues like accrued debt caused by Agency delays. The
experience of the past says that this may be only a matter of
time.
STAFFING
As Committee members are aware, the Department
for Work and Pensions has a target to reduce staff headcount.
I am keen to ensure that my office and those areas of the Agency
which facilitate our work are sufficiently well resourced. I would
appreciate the Committee's support in this.
ICE VISIT
I would like to extend an open invitation to
the Committee for members to visit my office in Liverpool. There
is no better way of getting a picture of problems faced by Agency
clients and a comprehensive understanding of how we resolve them.
Should you or any of your colleagues like to
do so, please let me know so that we can make the arrangements.
Jodi Berg
3 August 2004
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