House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 21 July 2009 (pt 0033)

21 July 2009 : Column 1266W—continued

March 2006
Location	Specialist Manager	Delivery Manager	Senior Manager	Director	Grand Total
Birkenhead CSAC	9.31	41.86	2	-	53.17
Dudley CSAC	17.4	43.2	1	-	61.6
Falkirk CSAC	24.27	35.6		-	59.87
Hastings CSAC	11.56	29.94		-	41.5
Plymouth CSAC	9.61	49.6	3.94	-	63.15
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Benton Park View	165.08	11.95	15.61	3	195.64
Other Sites	51.84	87.77	10	1	150.61
Grand Total	289.07	299.92	32.55	4	625.54
Total All Staff Employed	-	-	-	-	11,034

21 July 2009 : Column 1267W

21 July 2009 : Column 1268W

March 2005
Location	Specialist Manager	Delivery Manager	Senior Manager	Director	Grand Total
Birkenhead CSAC	1.86	52.98	3	-	58.27
Dudley CSAC	12.86	65.27	1	-	79.89
Falkirk CSAC	12.35	48.57	1	-	64.4
Hastings CSAC	9.95	50.3	1	-	62.25
Plymouth CSAC	1	60.16	2.94	-	66.1
Newcastle-Upon Tyne Benton Park	212,59	4	13	4	234.24
Other Sites	64.79	92.52	8	-	166,31
Grand Total	315.4	373.8	29.94	4	731,46
Total All Staff Employed	-	-	-	-	9,784

Estimated Executive and Administrative Support
		Number
March 2005	Estimate - Based on Number of Senior Managers	28
March 2006	Estimate - Based on Number of Senior Managers	20
March 2007	Estimate - Based on Number of Senior Managers	35
March 2008	By Organisation Design	35
March 2009	By Organisation Design	37
Notes: 1. The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission took responsibility for the Child Support Agency (CSA) from the Department for Work and Pensions on 1 November 2009. As a result, information available on the number of managers and support staff working within the CSA for the 2008-09 year is limited as the existing organisational structure underwent significant change. 2. There will be some managers shown as working for the CSA in the 2008-09 year who may have been working entirely within the new services offered by the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission. 3. Information on the numbers of Executive Support and Administration Staff can not be extracted from CSA data. An estimate of the number of staff deployed in those roles has therefore been provided. This estimate is extrapolated from the number of senior managers in the CSA for 2005 to 2007, and on the organisational design from 2007-08 and 2008-09. 4. The Child Support Agency operates from six main sites with a supporting network of around 100 smaller sites.

Table 2: Child Support Agency Bonus Payments by Job Role
£ 000
	March 2005	March 2006	March 2007	March 2008	March 2009
Directors	⁽¹⁾-	⁽¹⁾-	⁽¹⁾-	108	30
Senior Managers	⁽¹⁾-	⁽¹⁾-	⁽¹⁾-	237	185
Delivery Managers	⁽¹⁾-	⁽¹⁾-	⁽¹⁾-	181	84
Specialist Managers	⁽¹⁾-	⁽¹⁾-	⁽¹⁾-	162	108
Executive and Admin Support	⁽¹⁾-	⁽¹⁾-	⁽¹⁾-	13	9
Total special bonus paid (all Staff)	450	559	394	358	563
Total of all Bonus Paid (All Staff)	3,768	3,873	3,734	3,977	2,631
⁽¹⁾ Information on bonuses paid in the years 2005, 2006 and 2007 can not be broken down by job role.

Children: Maintenance

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the cost of implementing the child support elements of the Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act 2000 (a) were estimated to be on introduction of the legislation and (b) have been. [279116]

Helen Goodman [holding answer 12 June 2009]: The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have therefore asked the Child Maintenance Commissioner to write to the hon. Member with the information requested.

Letter from Stephen Geraghty:

In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Child Maintenance Commissioner as the Child Support Agency is now the responsibility of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission.

You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the cost of implementing the child support elements of the Child Support Pensions and Social Security Act 2000 (a) were estimated to be and (b) have been to date. [279116]

The Child Support Agency's Reform Programme was closed by October 2005, and it had spent £539m on implementing the reforms, compared to an estimated cost in the original business case of £606m.

I hope you find this answer helpful.

Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what procedures there are for non-resident parents to appeal against liability orders for child maintenance. [281764]

Helen Goodman: The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have asked the Child Maintenance Commissioner to write to the hon. Member, with the information requested and I have seen the response.

Letter from Stephen Geraghty:

In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Child Maintenance Commissioner. The Child Support Agency is now the responsibility of the Child Maintenance Enforcement Commission.

21 July 2009 : Column 1269W

You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what procedures there are for non-resident parents to appeal against liability orders for child maintenance. [281764]

Liability Orders are currently made in the Magistrates' Court (or Sheriff Court in Scotland). The non-resident parent may appeal such an order to the Administrative Court of Appeal, or Court of Session in Scotland, on the grounds that the decision was wrong in law or the court did not have the jurisdiction to make the decision.

I hope you find this answer helpful.

Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is taking to resolve cases of arrears in the payment of child maintenance. [281840]

Helen Goodman: The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have therefore asked the Child Maintenance Commissioner to write to the hon. Member with the information requested.

Letter from Stephen Geraghty:

In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Child Maintenance Commissioner.

You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is taking to resolve cases of arrears in the payment of child maintenance. [281840]

Collection of maintenance, including arrears, remains a priority for the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission. In March 2009 alone, the Commission collected and arranged over £100 million in maintenance, almost £14 million of which was arrears, and collected a total of £158 million in child maintenance arrears in the year to the end of March 2009.

The current amount of arrears owed by non-resident parents is the cumulative total of sixteen years of maintenance owed. In order to address these cases, the Commission is continually improving enforcement. In the twelve months to January 2009, the Commission completed 120,970 enforcement actions, including almost 70,000 deduction from earnings orders.

The Commission can already apply to the court for a non-resident parent who wilfully refuses to pay child maintenance to be disqualified from driving or committed to prison. Powers yet to be commenced under the 2008 Act include asking the court to impose a curfew or to disqualify the non-resident parent from holding or obtaining a passport.

The measures proposed in this year's Welfare Reform Bill include the Commission having the ability to remove passports and driving licences administratively, without needing to go through the courts. It is such measures which we will continue to use to take action against those parents who owe arrears to their children.

I hope you find this answer helpful.

Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether her Department has (a) commissioned and (b) reviewed recent research on the effectiveness of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission and its predecessor agency in recovering child maintenance payments from non-resident parents. [281843]

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