Minister Admits Failings in Child Support Agency

6.00.00pm GMT Tue 21st Jun 2005

Responding to a question posed yesterday by Annette Brooke in the House of Commons, the government Minister responsible for the Child Support Agency (CSA) admitted that, "the problems with the CSA are well know to all of us and to our constituents."

Addressing the Minister directly in Work and Pensions questions, Annette Brooke raised the issue of checks on statements of earnings submitted by self-employed non-resident parents.

It is a common problem facing the CSA that many non-resident parents who are self-employed do not accurately report their income or earnings, which means that children are not receiving the financial support they are entitled to from their parent. Annette Brooke has details of numerous cases where the resident parent has not received payment from their ex-partner for the care of their children due to the CSA's inability to establish his/her income.

Annette Brooke asked: "Does he consider it sensible to transfer some of those operations to the Inland Revenue?". Currently, the Inland Revenue does collect data on a person's income. Using Inland Revenue to calculate a person's income, and therefore their payment to their children, would facilitate the collection of child support from non-resident parents, usually fathers.

The Minister also admitted that: "The self-employed present the CSA with particular difficulties, which it is important to deal with effectively. We have introduced the possibility of communications with the Inland Revenue about the income of the self-employed."

Recently, one of Annette Brooke's long standing CSA cases has begun to be resolved after almost 10 years battle with the CSA, and back payments have been paid.

Oral Answers to Questions

WORK AND PENSIONS

Child Support Agency

7. Annette Brooke (Mid-Dorset and North Poole) (LD): If he will make a statement on the Child Support Agency.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr. James Plaskitt): The problems with the Child Support Agency are well known to all of us in the Chamber and to very many of our constituents. In April we appointed a new chief executive and as a priority we have asked him to address those problems and to carry out a wide-ranging review of the agency's operations and structures. He will report his findings to us in the summer and will set out his proposals to address those problems and improve the agency's performance, including the transfer of cases to the new system.He will be looking at short, medium and long-term actions.

Annette Brooke: New system or old, what measures will the Minister take to ensure that statements of earnings submitted by the self-employed are checked more effectively? Does he consider it sensible to transfer some of those operations to the Inland Revenue?

Mr. Plaskitt: The self-employed present the CSA with particular difficulties, which it is important to deal with effectively. We have introduced the possibility of communications with the Inland Revenue on information about the income of the self-employed, which has helped the CSA with some of those cases, but we should not transfer the whole case load to the Inland Revenue. Agencies are not queuing up to take over that responsibility, and the Inland Revenue also has difficulties with the self-employed, so the hon. Lady's proposal runs the risk of changing one set of problems for another. We will listen to the new chief executive to see whether we can resolve the problems in the CSA and get its house into order.