Child Support Agency head quits over massive IT failures

At prime minister's questions, responding to a suggestion from Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy, Tony Blair said: "It is highly unlikely that transferring [the CSA] to the Inland Revenue will cause anything other than consternation to recipients and the Inland Revenue alike," he said.

The prime minister agreed the CSA situation was "unacceptable" and said the IT failings that had plagued the CSA needed to be fixed.

The new £456m IT system from EDS at the CSA was at the heart of the debate.

Alan Johnson was called to account for failings of the Child Support Agency by the House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee yesterday to explain why half of lone parents haven't received maintenance payments for their children. The meeting was called as part of an ongoing investigation into the Child Support Agency, which introduced wide ranging reforms in March 2003.

Committee Chairman, Sir Archy Kirkwood, said ‘I believe the CSA is a failing organisation, unable to deliver the service parents have a right to expect. The organisation must improve, or increasing numbers of children will suffer.'

The Committee questioned Doug Smith about the poor performance of the new IT system and the refusal to set a deadline for the transfer of cases to the new system. Of the 742,400 cases under the ‘old' scheme, only 75% receive maintenance. Under the new scheme, results are even worse with only 50% of the 238,122 cases receiving maintenance payments .

Chairman Sir Archy Kirkwood said ‘whilst the performance of the CSA IT system is unacceptable, problems with the Agency go much deeper. The Committee will question the CSA over its apparent reluctance to use a wide range of powers to enforce the payment of child maintenance.'

A total of £720 million of debt remains uncollected, with a further £1 billion being written off as ‘uncollectable' .

Cases are currently split between two IT schemes – with the agency looking to transfer the remaining ‘old' cases onto the new scheme in the future. The case compliance rate for new scheme cases is 50% against a target of 78%. Old scheme cases have a 75% compliance rate, although only 50% of these are fully compliant – the remaining 25% only pay a proportion of the required amount.

The CSA's Annual Report and Accounts 2003-04 reports outstanding debt of £720.16 at 31 March 2004. Of this, £140.22 million is from new scheme cases (dating from March 2003). A further £947.7 million is classified as ‘uncollectable'. Currently, almost 25% of single parents fail to receive a single penny in child maintenance.

Related links to this article:

House of Commons, Work and Pensions Committee

Department for Work and Pensions

Child Support Agency

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