News Date: Monday 20th November 2006
Tim offers caution to announcement of further changes in Child Support system
Tim Loughton, MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, has reacted cautiously to news of legislative change to the Child Support Agency, agreeing that while change is necessary, there is still no indication that Government has got to the heart of the problem. A Child Support Agency Bill, announced in last week's Queen's Speech, will introduce measures to encourage parents to reach their own financial arrangements for the maintenance of their children and introduce tougher, new enforcement powers, but is disappointingly short on action to help the 1.5 million families caught in the quagmire of the current system.
Tim commented:
"I continue to be amazed and disheartened at the number of my constituents who are compelled to seek my assistance in negotiating the jungle of a child support system that has absolutely failed them.
"While I offer cautious welcome to the announcement of a new organisation and a fresh start, I remain very anxious about the fate of those in the current system who will effectively fall between two stools since they will not automatically be converted onto the proposed new system, in which case will not become operational until 2008 at the earliest. These families have effectively been abandoned by the Government.
Tim continued:
"It also remains to be seen whether the forthcoming legislation will address the inability of the current system to assess accurately how much maintenance an absent parent should pay. Unless the assessment process is made robust for these difficult cases, no system will be effective.
"I will do all I can to hold the Government to account on this issue on behalf of the people of East Worthing and Shoreham and I look forward to an early introduction of the Bill in Westminster. Any further delay is unacceptable and we owe it to the many hundreds of thousands of families for whom the current CSA is not delivering to ensure that we move forward as rapidly as possible."
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
1) The performance of the new CSA system has come under much criticism in recent years. A quarter of a million child support cases remain unprocessed,[1] ?3.5 billion of debt is uncollected with almost ?2 billion of this deemed probably uncollectible.[2] A Work and Pensions Select Committee report described the CSA's IT system as 'defective' and 'over-spec, over budget and overdue.'[3]
2) In a statement to the House of Commons on 9th February 2006, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, John Hutton MP, announced the publication of The Operational Improvement Plan. The plan stated that ?90m will be made available over the next three years to support short-term recovery of the CSA and a further ?30m to help contract out some debt recovery. Private debt collectors will be used to help recover arrears of ?3bn.[4] Alongside the Operational Improvement Plan, Mr Hutton announced that he had asked Sir David Henshaw to develop proposals for the future to provide the best possible arrangements for delivering child support.
3) On 24 July John Hutton made a statement to the House reporting on the recommendations of Sir David Henshaw's review. The proposals announced by Mr Hutton include:[5]
tackling child poverty by ensuring that parents with care keep more of the maintenance owed to them;
encouraging parents to reach their own financial arrangements for the maintenance of their children;
introducing new, tougher enforcement powers, including the withdrawal of passports; and
the establishment of a new organisation to handle new caseloads. This will be accompanied by a separate body to "manage down" and enforce old debt.
4) For more information, contact Tim Loughton MP's Westminster office on 020 7219 4471.
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[1] DWP, CSA Quarterly Performance Statistics, October 2006
[2] DWP, CSA Quarterly Performance Statistics, October 2006
[3] Management of IT Projects: Making IT Deliver for DWP Customers, 14 July 2004
[4] Child Support Agency, Operational Improvement Plan 2006-2009, February 2006.
[5] DWP Press Release, More streamlined and tougher child support system to replace CSA, 24 July 2006 http://www.dwp.gov.uk/mediacentre/pressreleases/2006/jul/cphs032-240706.asp
?, Tim Loughton MP , 2006
