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25 Jun 2007 : Column 426Wcontinued
A copy of the Child Support Agency Quarterly Summary Statistics is available in the House of Commons Library, or on the Internet via the following link:
I hope you find this answer helpful.
Table 1: Civil court proceedings | |
February 2006 to January 2007 | |
Notes: 1 The table details the number of civil proceedings undertaken and not the number of Child Support Agency cases resulting in court proceedings. 2. A liability order is a document obtained from the court showing that they legally recognise that the debt is owing. This is the same in both England and Wales and Scotland. This is required before the Agency can use litigation powers (Diligence in Scotland). 3. Distress actions refers to bailiff actions in England and Wales. This is where, once the debt has been legally recognised, the Agency has passed the debt to a bailiff company for collection (or equivalent). 4. County court judgment orders apply only to England and Wales. Registers the person with a county court judgment order, which remains on their credit record for six years. 5. Third party debt orders in England and Wales instruct a third party to pay any funds owed to, or held on behalf of, the non-resident parent to the Agency instead. In practice, this is typically used for banks and building societies. 6. Charging orders in England and Wales are where a county court order for the legally recognised debt is attached to the equity in the non-resident parents property. They are then unable to re-mortgage or sell the property without satisfying the debt. If they satisfy the debt by other means, the charge is removed. 7. Attachments refer to actions taken by sheriff officers in Scotland on the Agencys instruction to attach certain goods and remove for auction if the debt is not settled. 8. Arrestments refer to actions taken by sheriff officers in Scotland on the Agencys instruction to serve an arrestment on a third party holding funds owed to, or held on behalf of, the non-resident parent to pay to the Agency instead. In practice this is typically used for banks and building societies. 9. Bills of Inhibition in Scotland do not attach directly to the non-resident parents property, but are a personal prohibition preventing heritable property being transferred, alienated or disposed of by the non-resident parent. 10. Note that the figures for the most recent months are provisional, and may be subject to retrospective revisions. 11. Figures are rounded to the nearest five. 12. The figures included in this table do not themselves have National Statistics status, but are included in this publication in order to give a fuller picture of the Agencys performance. |
Table 2: Criminal court proceedings | |
Number taken to court 12 months to March 2007 | |
Notes: 1. Criminal proceedings are undertaken when a non-resident parent either fails to comply with a request for information; knowingly makes a false statement, or provides information they know to be false. 2. Criminal proceedings can also be made against employers for failing to apply a deduction of earnings order when asked or for obstructing a child support inspector in the course of their duties or for failing to co-operate with the inspector. |
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the total caseload of the Child Support Agency was in each (a) quarter and (b) year since 2003; what he estimates the caseload of the Agency and its successor will be in each (i) quarter and (ii) year to 2014; and if he will make a statement. [145371]
Mr. Plaskitt: I refer the hon. Member for Yeovil to parliamentary question 141939 answered today.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) third party debt orders and (b) charging orders were (i) sought by and (ii) granted to the Child Support Agency in each (A) quarter and (B) year since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [145373]
Mr. Plaskitt: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 25 June 2007:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question regarding 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 (a) third party debt orders and (b) charging orders were (i) sought by and (ii) granted to the Child Support Agency in each (A) quarter and (B) year since 1997; and if he will make a statement.
Once a liability order has been registered with the County Court the Agency may apply to the court for a charging order and/or third party debt order. The following table details the number of applications made to the court for each enforcement action.
The Agency does not routinely collate the number of final orders granted by the court. The following table details the number of applications made to the county court for each enforcement action since 1998.
I hope you find this answer helpful.
Table 1: numbers of charging orders and third party debt orders granted in each year from April 1998 to January 2007 | |||||||||
April 1998March 1999 | April 1999March 2000 | April 2000March 2001 | April 2001March 2002 | April 2002March 2003 | April 2003March 2004 | April 2004March 2005 | April 2005March 2006 | February 2006January 2007 | |
Notes: 1. Third Party Debt orders in England and Wales instruct a third party to pay any funds owed to, or held on behalf of, the non-resident parent to the Agency instead. In practice this is typically used for banks and building societies. 2. Charging orders in England and Wales are where a County Court Order for the legally recognised debt is attached to the equity in the non-resident parents property. They are then unable to re-mortgage or sell the property without satisfying the debt. If they satisfy the debt by other means the charge is removed. 3. The figures marked with an asterix are sourced from the Agencys Quarterly Summary Statistics. Prior to April 2004, the figures given were clerically collated and are actual figures, not subject to rounding. 4. Figures sourced from the Agencys Quarterly Summary Statistics are rounded to the nearest five. 5. The figures for 2006-07 are from February 2006 to January 2007 and these are the latest figures published available. |
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how long, on average, parents with care in receipt of benefits awaited payment in (a) old scheme and (b) new scheme Child Support Agency cases in each month since January 2003. [122890]
Mr. Plaskitt: The administration of the Child Support Agency is the matter for the Chief Executive.
He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 25 June 2007:
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 long on average parents with care in receipt of benefits awaited payment in (a) old scheme and (b) new scheme Child Support Agency cases in each month since January 2003.
Such information as is available can be found in the attached table, which shows both the number of months that parents with care in receipt of benefits and with a positive liability, to whom maintenance is due have been awaiting payment from the non-resident parent and the median average wait experienced by all parents with care on benefits. Figures for the new scheme should be taken in the context of that for a new caseload, and that for the old scheme in the context of an ageing caseload that is no longer receiving any new cases. In addition, any increase in the total number of non-compliant cases should be viewed in the context of an increase in the overall caseload over the same period.
It should be noted that, in establishing whether a parent with care was in receipt of benefit, the Agency has to match its data to DWP benefit data. The DWP information is only available on a quarterly basis; the latest available is for August 2006.
As you will be aware, the Agency has committed in its Operational Improvement Plan, published in February 2006, to
improve performance, including that 80 per cent. of new applications will be cleared within 12 weeks of receipt by March 2009 and helping 200,000 more children to benefit from maintenance payments, equating to an additional £140 million in
maintenance collected, by March 2008, growing to £250 million by March 2009.
I hope you find this answer helpful.
Table 1: The number of months that cases with a positive maintenance liability have been awaiting payment from the non resident parent, and the median average wait where the parent with care was in receipt of benefit, May 2003 to August 2006, by scheme | |||||||
Cases paying in month | Cases waiting less than 3 months | Cases waiting 3 to 6 months | Cases waiting 6 to 12 months | Cases waiting 1 to 2 years | Cases waiting Over 2 years | Time bands of Median average wait for maintenance for all PWCs on benefit | |
Notes to table: 1. Due to limitations with available management information, it is not possible to calculate the mean average time that cases have been waiting for a payment; hence the table shows the median average time band (in months) either since a payment was received on the case or since the case was calculated as having a positive liability. 2. The table shows cases where the parent with care was on benefit at the end of the month shown. This does not necessarily mean that the parent with care has been on benefit for the entire duration of the CSA claim. 3. Cases are classed as waiting if they are currently open, either non-compliant or have a calculation/assessment but no active charging schedule in place, and no maintenance has been received in the quarter ending with the month shown. 4. The table includes both old scheme cases on the old computer system and old scheme cases, which have been migrated onto the new computer system. 5. The table starts from May 2003, as this is the first month it is possible to provide comparable data across both the new and old schemes. 6. Numbers are rounded to the nearest thousand. - Indicates a figure less than 500. |
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