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Improvements to the Child Support Agency's customer service, diligence and commitment were commended in an independent report today.

In 2001/02, the CSA dealt with over a million cases, 34,000 more than last year, and with a lower proportion of complaints referred to the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) - less than one seventh of a per cent.

The ICE report found that while the CSA case load rose by 3.2% over the last year, complaints received by ICE went up by only 2.5%.

Responding to the report, Child Support Minister Patricia Hollis said:

"Whilst we treat every complaint referred to ICE as one complaint too many, I am pleased to see the improvement in the proportion of cases being referred to the Examiner.

"The CSA has made significant progress towards enhancing its customer service. The determination and willingness to go the extra mile for clients has rightly been picked out for praise in the ICE report.

"ICE's role in advising the CSA on how best to improve the way it handles its complaints has proved valuable. I'm glad to see that the areas highlighted by ICE for improvement are those that the CSA has already taken positive steps to address.

"As ICE has acknowledged, in many investigated cases the complaint goes back a number of years and will not take into account improvements the CSA has made."

Recent CSA improvements include:
- dedicated staff trained to solve complaints throughout the CSA; - the introduction of senior managers to work with customers who have experienced particular difficulties to reach a situation acceptable to both customer and the CSA;
- a standardised approach to handling complaints to ensure that best practice highlighted by ICE is replicated across the CSA.

In addition, overall complaints received by the CSA have fallen by over 20%, compliance from non-resident parents is higher than ever before, and this has resulted in the parents with care and their children receiving £7 million a month more.

Notes for editors

1. The Independent Case Examiner provides an independent complaints review service for the CSA.

2. In 2001/02 ICE received 1498 complaints. Set against over a million cases being handled by the CSA, complaints to ICE represented less than 0.14% of the total case load.

3. Whilst the CSA caseload rose by 3.2% over the last year, complaints received by ICE only went up 2.5%.

4. The CSA was one of the first to introduce an independent element to its complaint handling processes - this example has been followed by other government agencies in order to provide a high level of customer service

5. Media copies of the ICE report can be obtained from the Government News Network London & South East on 020 7261 8787.

6. Members of the public can obtain copies of the ICE report by calling 0151 801 8800 or from the ICE website at
www.ind-case-exam.org.uk from Tuesday 2 July 2002.

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