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"Lessons must be learned from devastating NAO report" says One Parent Families
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29/06/06 Today's National Audit Office report on implementation of the 2003 child support reforms shockingly lifts the lid on the full extent of what has gone wrong at the Child Support Agency. It reveals that: - The 2003 reforms were implemented despite over 300 critical defects in the IT. The new computer CS2 continues to seriously underperform with 600 manual 'workarounds' still in operation.
- It is costing 70 pence to collect every £1 in maintenance, not least because the Agency is required to collect and transfer relatively small amounts of maintenance from and on behalf of relatively poor customers, who have poor incentives for compliance;
- Enforcement of child support arrears is abysmal: less than 10% of cases where maintenance is not being fully paid ever reach the Agency's enforcement teams; and the teams themselves find that the IT system does not enable them to easily identify what debt exists on a case and which non-resident parents are the most persistent offenders.
One Parent Families warns that, in coming up with its plans for future reform, the Government must learn the lessons from the mistakes of the past. Chris Pond, One Parent Families's Chief Executive said:
"The IT failures which dogged the 2003 reforms must not be repeated. Any future contracts with the private sector must be built round a guarantee of a high level of service to parents from the start.
"The biggest incentive to low income parents to pay child maintenance would be if they knew their children would directly benefit from the money they paid. We think the poorest lone parents -- those on income support -- should be allowed to keep 100% of any child maintenance they receive.
"The NAO report is brutally clear that there is little chance of 'old system' cases being transferred to the 2003 scheme. Yet there are 46,000 lone parents on the old system who are being paid maintenance but whose children do not see a penny of it because they are on benefit. This group in particular requires urgent intervention.
"At the same time, there is a strong business case for allowing all parents a choice as to whether or not they use the Agency -- including those on benefit. We think the system would be more efficient and cost effective, if it was allowed to focus on those parents who actively wanted to use it.
"Finally, debt collection and strong enforcement has got to be at the centre of any new scheme, not an afterthought. Because, as the NAO report makes clear, the failure to pay maintenance can cause real hardship and have lasting consequences for parents with care and their children."
FURTHER INFORMATION FROM JANE AHRENDS ON 0207 428 5416
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