CSA 'Still in intensive care' despite recovery plan says One Parent Families

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26/04/07 New statistics from the Child Support Agency suggest that its three-year Operational Improvement Plan, which began a year ago, has not yet radically improved the Agency's performance.

The new statistics show:

The Agency has managed to bring down its backlog of unprocessed cases by 29% to 195,000 cases (compared to 281,800 a year ago). This is a positive first step.
But accuracy has actually fallen in the last year.
The proportion of non-resident parents actually paying child maintenance has barely changed. Under the Improvement Plan, the Agency aimed to improve 'case compliance' on new cases from 65% in March 2006 to 75% by March 2008. But, with a year to go, case compliance on new scheme cases has actually fallen to 63%.

Commenting on the figures, Chris Pond, Chief Executive of One Parent Families, said:

"Far from being on the road to recovery, these figures suggest the CSA is still in intensive care and its condition is still critical. The Operational Improvement Plan is vital to the success of the Government's future plans for child support reform. Large sums are being invested to improve the service to customers, increase the amount collected and achieve better compliance from non-resident parents. If this cannot be achieved, it throws into question how successful the new organisation which will replace the CSA can be."

Chris Pond added:

"We are only at the end of the first year of a three- year programme of improvements, but we are worried that there are so few signs of progress in getting more child maintenance to lone parents. The Improvement Plan is about putting in place new working methods to produce better results for the future. Unless those new methods are successful, the Government's plans for child support reform in the future will be thrown into jeopardy."

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