DEPARTMENT FOR WORK
AND PENSIONS News Release (HSE - 044) issued by The Government News
Network on 24 October 2007
First Release
Coverage: Great Britain (unless otherwise stated)
Introduction
The CSA is responsible for tracing Non-resident Parents, working
out how much maintenance they should pay, and can collect and
enforce payments.
Main Findings
- In the year to September 2007, the Agency collected or arranged
£925M in child maintenance (regular and arrears), of which £106M
was arrears.
- In the three months to September 2007, maintenance had been
collected or arranged by the Agency on behalf of 674,000 children.
- At the end of September 2007, the CSA caseload stood at 1.4
million, a decrease of 3% at the same point in the previous year.
The overall caseload fall is due to higher old scheme closures
than intake to the new scheme.
- Of all new scheme applications received in June 2007, 74% had
been cleared within 12 weeks, compared to 55% of applications
received in June 2006. Of those applications received in March
2007, 87% had been cleared within 6 months, up from 73% in March
2006. At end September 2007, 10% of all new scheme applications
received have yet to be cleared. In September 2006, 20% of all new
scheme applications were uncleared. 'Uncleared'
applications may be at any stage in the application process, such
as tracing the non-resident parent- only a minority will be
completely unprocessed. A comprehensive definition of a clearance
is provided within the QSS itself.
- Of those new scheme applications where the Agency has made a
calculation and set up a collection schedule on which payments
were expected from the non-resident parent, 85% of cases have made
at least one payment to the parent with care.
* At the end of September 2007, there were 162,000 uncleared
applications across both schemes, a fall of 37% over the previous
twelve months. The volume of uncleared new scheme applications has
fallen by 10,000 since June 2007 and, at 128,000, is at its lowest
since December 2003. This represents a fall of 36% since September 2006.
* In the quarter ending September 2007, on average, where
maintenance had been paid via the collection service, the Agency
had collected 87% of the amount due. Performance in this area has
been broadly flat for the last year.
* At the end of the 2005/6 financial year (latest available), the
total amount of outstanding money owed by non resident parents to
parents with care stood at £3.5 billion, whilst this represented
an increase of £242 million on 2004/5, the average monthly rate of
increase has slowed from £23 million to £20 million.
* In the quarter ending September 2007, 62% of all cases in which
maintenance was due had either received maintenance via the CSA
collection service, or had a maintenance direct arrangement in
place. This figure has not changed in recent months and currently
equates to 498,000 cases.
* At the end of September 2007, the average new scheme
maintenance calculation was £23 per week (including zero
calculations), and that for old scheme assessments was £21.
* Between April 2007 and August 2007, the Agency had answered 98%
of telephone calls available to staff to answer, with an average
waiting time of 21 seconds, up from 97% answered with a waiting
time of 26 seconds in the year ending March 2007.
* In August 2007, there were 11,000 staff employed by the CSA
(measured on a full-time equivalent basis).
Latest statistical data available from http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/csa.asp
Notes to Editors
Launched on 5 April 1993, the Child Support Agency (CSA) is an
executive agency of the Department for Work and Pensions, set up
to implement the Child Support Act 1991 and operate the new child
maintenance system in Great Britain (there is a separate but
parallel agency for Northern Ireland). The CSA is responsible for
tracing Non-resident Parents, working out how much maintenance
they should pay, and can collect and enforce payments
Prior to 3 March 2003, CSA stored information on the Child
Support Computer System (CSCS). Since the introduction of the new
computer system (CS2) on that date, all new Child Support
applications have been assessed under a new scheme on the new system
Methodological changes
Previously we stated that we had become aware that some cases
currently classed as "Assessed not charging" in Table 6
series may be more appropriately placed in other categories. We
have now corrected this issue which has resulted in increases in
maintenance outcomes and old scheme uncleared work.
Previously, a small number of cases that have been deleted from
CS2 had been included in the QSS. Cases are deleted from CS2 when
the case was generated in error e.g. duplicate cases or cases
removed for data protection purposes. The majority of these cases
(around 1,400) have now been removed although a very small number
of deleted records will still be included.
These changes have now been implemented back to March 2003 and
the change in time series is indicated on those tables to which it applies.
Additional statistics
Table 29 shows information on Changes of Circumstances dealt with
by the Agency. These are being released as provisional National
Statistics, subject to comment and review. They are published in
order to involve users and stakeholders in their development and
as a means to build in quality at an early stage. Since last
quarter, changes of circumstances relating to closed cases have
been removed; where a change notification splits in to more than
one work item, all work items are now included; the column to show
what proportion of changes of circumstances affect the collection
schedule has been added. Further comments are welcome.
Known Issues
Since June 2006, CSA have been contracting out the collection of
some arrears to debt collection agencies. For cases managed by
debt collection agencies, the agreement to pay back the
maintenance arrears and in particular the amount to be paid each
month is between the debt collection agency and the non-resident
parent. As such, the CSA no longer has the information to assess
cash compliance for all cases. Whilst the total amount of debt is
known, the monthly amount that debt collection agency non-resident
parents are expected to pay is unknown. This affects the
measurement of cash compliance (table 11) and a number of other
tables (to a smaller degree). As a result, the arrears portion of
the cash compliance series has been suspended. These tables carry
a footnote explaining the issue.
Clerical Cases
The figures include the majority of the cases that have been (or
are being) progressed as clerical cases. However, the tables
reflect the position at the point the case became clerical. Some
work was undertaken to investigate the clerical caseload and
it's interaction with CS2. If it were possible to account for
all clerical cases in their correct position in the Agency, it was
estimated that the number of cases at the pre-calculation stage
would be slightly less than shown.
The outcome of cases now being managed clerically is not
reflected in the Maintenance Outcomes and Compliance tables. The
record of the case remains on CS2 but receipts will not be
associated to the case on the system. Therefore, if the case was
charging at the time it was removed from CS2 the case will now
class as a negative outcome for the Agency. Outcomes for clerical
cases which have never been on CS2 are also not reflected.
It is not currently possible to fully integrate the clerical
caseload in these tables.
Issued by:
Information Directorate
Department for Work
and Pensions
Website:
http://www.dwp.gov.uk
Statistician:
Stuart Grant
Information
Directorate
Department for Work and Pensions
BP
5201
Benton Park View
Benton Park
Road
Longbenton
NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE
NE98 1YX
Next Publication: 30 January 2008