Child Support Agency is Utter Shambles - Brooke

3.48.20pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 26th Apr 2007

As the Prime Minister steps down he leaves behind a generation of children failed by the CSA - Brooke

Commenting on the latest Child Support Agency performance figures released today, Annette Brooke MP, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Children, Young People and Families said:

"The administration of the CSA continues to be an utter shambles and a shameful embarrassment to this Government.

"As the Prime Minister steps down he leaves behind a generation of children failed by the CSA. His successor must realise that action is needed now to end this tragic situation.

"In 1998 the Prime Minister acknowledged that the CSA had lost the confidence of the public and was in urgent need of reform. Seven years later he was still saying the Government was urgently seeking solutions.

"However, now we see the agency plummeting to new depths and we are still six years away from real reform.

"It now takes an average of 18 months for a child support application to be processed, pushing ever more families into poverty.

"The fact that the CSA has now failed to collect £3.5bn in maintenance payments is a total disgrace."