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Child Support Agency crisis deepens
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15/11/04 Lone parents demand answers from minister as CSA crisis deepens. Lone Parents will be wanting answers from Secretary of State Alan Johnson MP when he is called to account about the growing crisis at the CSA at a Select Committee hering on Wednesday 17 November. Chief Executive of the agency Doug Smith will appear before a Work and Pensions Select Committe on the same day.
In July the Select Committee set the Government an ultimatum, to get the new system fully functional by 1 December or else publish a contingency plan, including the option of abandoning the new computer system. It also said that by that date the agency should be able to guarantee that all 'old' cases would go on to the new system by May 2005. Currently it looks increasingly unlikely that the deadline will be met.
Recent evidence shows the CSA's new scheme has reached make or break point, with £35 million of child maintenance standing uncollected after the first year of operation alone, One Parent Families is warning. In the first year of the new system, the CSA collected just 43 per cent of the amount of money it expected to collect.
To the thousands of lone parents still waiting for their entitlements, the Government's promise - that a new, 'simpler' scheme would get money flowing - is looking empty. The radically reformed scheme, introduced in April 2003, is dogged by major IT and telephony problems; fewer cases under the new system have been processed than forecast and complaince levels have not met expectations.
Proposals to cut the agency's staff head count by 2,600 by April 2006 will deepen the crisis. Unless the Government can in the short term show that the agency can successfully handle both new applications and the transfer of old cases on to the new system, a re-think will be called for as to how to ensure that parents get the payments they were promised with the new system, the charity warns. Recent research among the charity's members shows the mounting frustration and anger among lone parents. Some have given up trying to money through the new system, with the result that they struggle to afford everyday necessities for their children. One Parent Families is demanding action from the Government to deliver the reliable, efficient service that it promised. It wants the Government to consider introducing an 'advance maintenance system' under which lone parents would automatically get their entitlements while the Government takes responsibility for recovering the money from non-resident parents. Chief Executive of One Parent Families Nicola Simpson said: 'The Government must set a deadline for getting the system to work properly. Eighteen months after the agency was reformed, thousands of lone parents still haven't seen a penny of the money that was promised to them. It is money they need to support their children.'
Nicola Simpson pressed the Government to halt staff cuts at the agency:
'It would be a breach of faith by the Government if the 'freeing up' of CSA staff time as a result of the new, simpler system were used not to devote more staff time to ensuring better complaince rates and prompt enforcement action but, instead, to make staff cuts. At a time when less than half the money owed under the new system is being collected, it would be a hammer blow for lone parents' hopes of a functional system if staffing levels were cut even further. An effective child support scheme is a crucial element in teh Government's target to eliminate child poverty by 2020 and to enable 70 per cent of lone parents to be working by 2010. The Government will only achieve its anti-poverty and lone-parent employment targets if the agency has the resources and determination to make compliance, arrears collection and enforcement a central priority.'
Key Facts
Recent figures - taking account of the CSA Annual report 2003-04 and the latest report to Parliament on progress (October 29 2004) - show: - Up until end September 2004, the CSA has taken on 478,150 child support applications under the new system but has processed only 55 per cent of applications received.
- Of the cases where a calculation had been made (140,612 cases in all up to September 2004), less than half (43 per cent) had resulted in a first payment through the Agency.
- As at 31 March 2004, an estimated £720 million was owed in child maintenance and considered recoverable by the Agency. This figure includes £35 million in overdue payments which have arisen since March 2003.
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