Why is the Child Support Agency changing?

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Updated 24 September 2008

The Government has finally admitted what lone parents have known for a long time - that the existing child support scheme does not work and that the performance of the Child Support Agency (CSA) has been abysmal. Today, over half of lone parents are bringing up children without any child maintenance order or agreement; and where there is an order or agreement, in a third of cases it is not being paid.

Is the Government shutting down the CSA?

Yes - eventually, but this will not happen until 2011 at the earliest. The CSA is being taken over by a new body, the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, but they will continue to run the CSA and will keep the same name for this ‘arm' of their business. The Commission (also known as C-MEC) officially took over in July 2008.

Will I notice any immediate difference when C-MEC takes over?

If you already have a case with the CSA, little will change immediately in terms of your dealings with staff. The same staff will carry on dealing with cases from the same offices. They will continue to calculate maintenance in the same way, collect any child maintenance owed and chase up arrears. There will be a gradual series of changes over the next five years (see below) and hopefully the service to parents will also gradually improve.

Next page: What changes are planned?

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