Department for Work and Pensions
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Scottish children benefit from record £1billion in child maintenance collected or arranged
A total of 62,400 children in Scotland are now benefiting from child maintenance payments, as the Child Support Agency collected or arranged a record £1billion nationally in a 12 month period.
The total amount collected or arranged for Scottish children was more than £83.869m in the same period (April 2007 to March 2008).
Since March 2005 - when improvements began to be made to the CSA's performance - the Agency has collected or arranged more than £232m (£232,481,000) for children in Scotland, supporting close to an extra 11,400 children.
The National Statistics figures also confirm the Child Support Agency is now collecting more arrears owed by non resident parents, helping almost 750,000 children nationally, clearing applications quicker and improving customer service.
The improvements are a direct result of the Agency's three-year Operational Improvement Plan.
CSA Minister James Plaskitt said:
"It is excellent news that we are getting more money to more children in Scotland, since March 2005, more than £232m in maintenance payments have benefited children in Scotland.
"The implementation of the Operational Improvement Plan, and the hard work and commitment of our staff demonstrates the improvements that have been made. Existing CSA clients should be reassured that they will continue to see further improvements when the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is established later this year."
CSA Chief Executive and Child Maintenance Commissioner Designate, Stephen Geraghty, added: "The Child Support Agency and its Operational Improvement Plan (OIP) has delivered real improvements to the child maintenance system in areas such as customer service, compliance and collection and this creates stable foundations on which the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission can build.
"In the meantime, the CSA will continue to pursue parents who evade their financial responsibilities. Our message to them is clear. Act now or we will."
-ENDS-
Notes to editors:
* A full Scottish breakdown of children benefiting and money collected / arranged - by local authority areas can be found in the table below*:
Local Authority of Collections/ Change of Children
Parent With Care arrangements collections/ benefiting as of
(PWC) between April arrangements Mar 08
07 and March between March
08 05 - March 08
Aberdeen City £3,138,600 -£8,200 2,020
Aberdeenshire £4,578,100 -£3,600 2,480
Angus £2,613,700 £12,400 1,760
Argyll & Bute £1,881,100 £35,200 1,220
Scottish Borders £2,538,000 £41,200 1,580 The
Clackmannanshire £966,200 £21,300 760
West Dunbartonshire £1,781,700 - 1,290
Dumfries & Galloway £2,799,500 £61,600 2,130
Dundee City £2,415,400 £13,400 2,080
East Ayrshire £1,668,900 £60,200 1,620
East Dunbartonshire £1,273,300 £5,300 860
East Lothian £1,258,200 £38,500 880
East Renfrewshire £721,700 -£4,700 550
Edinburgh City of £4,653,400 £86,000 3,640
Falkirk £3,361,800 £78,100 2,310
Fife £7,053,600 £26,300 5,060
Glasgow City £6,952,900 £22,000 6,570
Highland £2,947,600 £57,000 2,310
Inverclyde £1,503,500 £20,000 1,200
Midlothian £1,621,800 £9,300 1,180
Moray £2,072,000 £56,600 1,270
North Ayrshire £2,709,300 £14,000 2,230
North Lanarkshire £5,699,400 £52,300 4,840
Orkney Islands £414,000 -£6,300 290
Perth and Kinross £2,574,100 £8,200 1,690
Renfrewshire £2,223,100 £58,000 1,800
Shetland Islands £378,500 £18,300 320
South Ayrshire £1,713,300 £27,600 1,270
South Lanarkshire £4,935,300 £88,900 3,470
Stirling £1,260,400 -£28,800 870
West Lothian £3,693,700 £33,900 2,530
Eilean Siar £466,300 - 310
(Comhairle nan)
£83,868,400 £894,000 62,390
* The Local Authority figures have been rounded to the nearest £100 for collections/ arrangements and to the nearest 10 children benefiting.
* A summary of the Quarterly Summary of Statistics (QSS) is available on the news section at http://www.csa.gov.uk
* Latest QSS figures have been improved to increase accuracy. Although the total amount of money collected and arranged for children has not been affected; improvements in how all payments collected or arranged by the Agency are allocated has improved the accuracy of other key measures.
* Until now cases have only been counted as a positive outcome or as having children benefiting if the money collected from the non-resident parent has been allocated against an electronic collection schedule. There is a large number of cases where money is received from the non-resident parent but is not allocated to an electronic collection schedule, meaning that the Agency's performance has been significantly understated. The new methodology now counts all cases where maintenance is collected from the non-resident parent.
* Clerical performance has also been included for the first time, which has the effect of an extra 18,900 children benefiting of the 749,300 at March 2008.
* The Operational Improvement Plan was developed from an April 2005 baseline, which was a low point in the Agency's performance, and built on achievements already made in the 2005/06 year. Figures are given from this baseline up to March 2008 for comparison. The OIP is now coming into its third and final year.
* We continue to pursue those non resident parents who evade their financial responsibilities, in our commitment to get more money for more children.
* Last year, action by the Child Support Agency ensured that an average of 73 non resident parents a day received a bailiff visit (not in Scotland) or a court date because of refusal to pay for their child. In every month last year we deducted wages directly from an average of 114,000 parents' paypackets - an average of 6,200 of these were new each month.
* Legislation for the creation of The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is currently going through Parliament. We anticipate Royal Assent in spring/summer 2008, with the Commission coming into force later this year.
Website: http://www.dwp.gov.uk
