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Child maintenance arrears: statement from the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission
The Child
Maintenance and Enforcement Commission has issued the following
statement in response to the press release from Gingerbread
entitled "League table of shame reveals sky-high local
child maintenance debts" issued on Wednesday 14th July
2010.
The Commission would strongly caution that the quoted arrears
figures do not represent money "owed to
children" by non-resident parents. Around 50% of the
total outstanding arrears is owed back to the Secretary of State
for Work and Pensions and not to parents with care (for further
explanation, please see point 2 in the Notes to Editors below.
Statement from the Child Maintenance and Enforcement
Commission.
"The Child Support Agency collected or arranged a record £1,141 million in child maintenance in the year ending March 2010. Total payments and the number of children benefiting from them have increased by more than 40% since 2005.
"While the Commission shares Gingerbread's view that responsibility for unpaid maintenance rests ultimately with non-resident parents, it should be noted that CSA arrears have actually been falling recently. In the year to March 2010 they were down from £3,783 million to £3,761 - an average reduction of £5.6m per month.
"The CSA's top priority under the Commission
has been to arrest the growth of arrears, which it has succeeded
in doing. During 2004/5 arrears were increasing by around £23
million per month.
"Regrettably some parents go to great lengths to
avoid their financial responsibility to their children, requiring
costly and time-consuming enforcement action to be taken against
them. But we do not give up on cases and nor do we write off
accumulated arrears.
"The Commission is using tough enforcement measures, including deducting money directly from bank accounts, seizing properties through Order for Sale action and preventing or reversing the transfer of assets from a non-resident parent with outstanding arrears to another person in order to evade child maintenance liabilities.
"In the last 12 months to January 2010, 114,400 new
enforcement actions were taken. Some 500 properties are currently
subject to Order for Sale action.
"We expect
this progress to continue when the entirely new maintenance
service now being developed by the Commission gradually replaces
the CSA from 2011."
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. It is important to note that the size of the constituency may be a factor on a towns high ranking on the arrears league table . Secondly, it should also be noted that the arrears total is a culmination of the CSA's 17 years of operation - nothing has been written off.
2. It should also be clearly understood that only around half of the total CSA arrears represent money owed to parents with care. Around half of the total is owed to the ‘Secretary of State’ (i.e. the government) and represents income related benefits paid to parents with care before child maintenance was disconnected from the benefits system. There is also a substantial element of estimated arrears which are likely to be adjusted significantly downwards in each case as and when full details of actual earnings by the non-resident parent over the relevant period are provided.
3. The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is the body responsible for the child maintenance system in Great Britain. The Commission’s role is to promote financial responsibility for children, provide the Child Maintenance Options information and support service and to develop and direct the statutory child maintenance service currently provided by the Child Support Agency.
4. The Child Support Agency has not been ‘replaced’ by the
Commission. The Commission is developing an entirely new statutory
maintenance scheme to be launched in 2011 that will replace the
two schemes currently provided by the CSA. The CSA will continue
in parallel until all of its cases have been closed and parents
have been invited to apply to the new scheme. Prior to October
2008, parents on income-related benefits had to use the CSA to
arrange child maintenance. This is no longer the case.
Contacts:
NDS Enquiries
Phone: For enquiries please contact the above department
ndsenquiries@coi.gsi.gov.uk
Ruth Allman
Phone: 020 7853 8042
ruth.allman@childmaintenance.gsi.gov.uk
