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15 Dec 2005 : Column 2281W—continued
Child Maintenance
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in Tamworth constituency receive maintenance allowance via the Child Support Agency under the (a) old and (b) new scheme. [29291]
Mr. Plaskitt:
This information is not available at the geographical level requested.
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Child Support Agency
Mr. Gale: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people are employed in the Child Support Agency self-employed team; and how many cases they are currently working on. [23230]
Mr. Plaskitt [holding answer 31 October 2005]: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 15 December 2005:
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 people are employed in the Child Support Agency self-employed team; and how many cases they are currently working on.
In answer to your first question, our staff work on cases involving parents who are self-employed as part of our overall operation. We do not record centrally, the number of staff working specifically on these type of cases.
In September 2005, there were around 63,000 cases using the Agency's collection service and a further 10,000 cases using the maintenance direct arrangements, in which the non-resident parent was recorded as self-employed at the point they received an initial assessment or calculation.
There are also some applications involving self-employed non-resident parents for which the Agency has yet to calculate maintenance.
Mr. Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what amount of arrears was written off by the Child Support Agency in each year from 1997 to 2005 in (a) England, (b) Northamptonshire and (c) Wellingborough. [26779]
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what amount of arrears was written off by the Child Support Agency in (a) England, (b) the Tees Valley and (c) Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency in each year since 1997. [29917]
Mr. Plaskitt: This information is not available. The Child Support Agency does not have the power to write off any debt owed.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on what date a hard copy of the Child Support Agency (CSA) Standards Committee report was published; and on what date the report was placed on the CSA's website. [29988]
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Mr. Plaskitt: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive, Mr. Stephen Geraghty. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 15 December 2005:
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 on what date a hard copy of the Child Support Agency (CSA) Standards Committee report was published; and on what date the report was placed on the CSA's website.
The Child Support Agency (CSA) Standards Committee report was published on the CSA website on Monday 8 August 2005. No hard copy was published.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many changes of circumstance have been reported by non-resident parents on the (a) old and (b) new Child Support Agency scheme in each month of the last three years. [30066]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information requested is not available.
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many Scottish claims were awaiting processing under the new Child Support Agency scheme calculation in each month since June 2003. [31137]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information can not be broken down to the geographical level requested.
Sir Michael Spicer: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether it is the Government's policy for the Child Support Agency to give priority in a financial settlement to the children of a new partnership where the father is not the biological parent over the children of his original marriage. [34241]
Mr. Plaskitt [holding answer 2 December 2005]: The Government aim to balance the needs of both sets of children. It recognises the additional responsibilities of a non-resident parent caring for their own child or a stepchild in their current family in the rules used to work out child maintenance.
For example, normally in the new scheme (introduced in March 2003) the non-resident parent's net weekly income is reduced by 15 per cent. where they care for one such child, 20 per cent. for two and 25 per cent. for three children or more. These are the same percentages used to work out the amount of child support the non-resident parent should pay.
David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what criteria the Child Support Agency uses when selecting cases pre-dating 3 March 2003 for recalculation of child maintenance liability; [36955]
(2) when he expects the Child Support Agency to have recalculated child maintenance liability for all cases predating 3 March 2003. [36961]
Mr. Plaskitt:
Some old scheme cases linked to a new application will be converted to the new scheme.
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The Child Support Agency's chief executive, Stephen Geraghty, is currently undertaking a root and branch review of the Agency. He will report to Ministers and we will make announcements shortly.
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether there are circumstances under which the Child Support Agency contacts birth parents asking for information about children who were adopted. [37979]
Mr. Plaskitt: There are no circumstances where the Child Support Agency will need to contact the birth parents in relation to that child. Once a legal adoption has been completed, the adoptive parents take on the legal liability for the financial support of the child.
Child Support Maintenance
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps he takes to monitor the proportion of parents with care on income support or income-based jobseekers allowance who are receiving child support maintenance for their children; and if he will make a statement. [30566]
Mr. Plaskitt: The proportion of parents with care on income support or income-based jobseeker's allowance who are receiving child support maintenance for their children is reported and monitored through the CSA Quarterly Statistical Summary which was first published on the Department's website on 27 October. A copy of this table is available in the Library.
CSA
Mr. Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many formal complaints his Department has received regarding the Child Support Agency from people in (a) Gravesham and (b) England since 1997. [19807]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information requested can not be broken down to the geographical level requested.
Data Protection Act
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many enforcement notices have been placed on the Department by the Information Commissioner with regard to the Data Protection Act 1998 since it came into force. [38021]
European Funding
Stewart Hosie: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the basis was for the allocation of European expenditure to Scotland in 2003–04 in the Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis, comprising payments under European social fund (ESF), payments in advance under the ESF, and payments under European regional development funds. [36016]
Mr. Plaskitt:
The allocation within the departmental expenditure limit, (DEL) over country and region, which includes ESF payments, is based on DWP staff numbers in those areas.
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