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Child maintenance collections still increasing under new rules as CSA further improves its service to parents

CHILD MAINTENANCE AND ENFORCEMENT COMMISSION News Release (QSS) issued by COI News Distribution Service. 28 January 2009

The first quarterly performance statistics since last October's child maintenance rule changes show the Child Support Agency (CSA) is continuing to deliver more money to parents with care.

During 2008, the CSA collected or arranged a total of £1,112 million - an increase of £137 million from the total for 2007 and up from £798 million in the year to March 2005.

The Agency has also continued to increase the recovery of unpaid maintenance and arrest the growth of maintenance debt. £156m in outstanding arrears has been collected since December 2007 - including a quarterly increase of £7m since September 2008 - reflecting the Agency's determination to pursue non-resident parents who fail to meet their obligations to their children.

These are the first quarterly figures since the removal of the compulsion on parents with care who are claiming benefits to use the CSA to collect or arrange maintenance payments. The changes, which came into force on October 27th 2008, affected around 400,000 CSA clients who are now free to make private maintenance arrangements outside of the state system provided by the Agency.

"Allowing freedom of choice to all parents has brought a modest but unsurprising reduction in the flow of new cases onto the CSA's books and this is reflected in these figures," says Child Maintenance Commissioner Stephen Geraghty. "Overall they clearly reflect strong and continuing progress in the efficiency and quality of the service it provides. With only three months to go until the completion of the Operational Improvement Plan launched in 2006, the CSA is well on track to meet the vast majority of the targets set for it by the Government."

The figures also show dramatic reductions in the volume of uncleared cases (down by 48% between March and December 08) as well as telephone waiting times. In the nine months to the end of December 2008 the CSA answered 99% of telephone calls available to answer, with an average waiting time of 15 seconds.

All parents seeking information and support on the new choices available to them under the new rules are advised to take advantage of the new Child Maintenance Options service by visiting http://www.cmoptions.org or calling the free phone number 0800 988 0988

ENDS

For further information please contact the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission Press Office on 0207 853 8082/83

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is a new body responsible for the child maintenance system in Great Britain. The Commission's role is to promote financial responsibility for children; offer an information and support service; and to develop and direct the statutory child maintenance service currently provided by the Child Support Agency.

2. The Child Support Agency has not been 'replaced' by the Commission. The Commission is developing a new statutory maintenance scheme that will replace the two schemes currently provided by the CSA from 2011.
3. Full details of the latest Quarterly Summary of Statistics from the CSA can be viewed at http://www.childmaintenance.org/ . The key statistics are included in the table below:

Target      March   March    December Performance End     Performance
                  2006    2008     2008     change -    year    change
                                            March 08 to target  required
                                            December 08         in 2008-09
      Current     220,500 106,700  55,300   -51,400     90,000  -16,700
      Scheme                                (-48%)              (-15%)
      Un-cleared applications 1
      Maintenance 63%     66.8%    67.0%    +0.2%       69%     +2.2
      Outcomes                                                  percentage
                                                                points
      Number of   623,000 749,300  756,600  +7,300      790,000 +40,700
      children                              (+1%)               (+5%)
      benefiting from maintenance
      Maintenance £836m   £1,010m  £1,112m  +£102m      £1,080m + £70m
      collected           (of      of which (+£30m      of      (+£94m
      or arranged         which    £156m    arrears)    which   arrears)
      (12 month           £126m    arrears              £220m
      rolling)            arrears)                      arrears
                                                        (see
                                                        para
                                                        1.10)
      Throughput  Dec 05  Dec 07   Sep 08   +2          80%     +3
      12 weeks 1  intake  intake   intake   percentage          percentage
                  52%     77%      79%      points              points
      Throughput  Oct 05  Oct 07   Jul 08   +7          N/A
      18 weeks 1  intake  intake   intake   percentage
                  60%     83%      90%      points