News In Focus
16 January 2006
CSA mistakes cost £10 million
The Child Support Agency has paid out more than £10 million in compensation for mistakes over the past four years, according to an article in today's Herald.
Figures released under freedom of information legislation show that the agency paid £41,000 in compensation to one parent after a series of blunders, while another was awarded over £15,000 because of a delay in sending out a claim form.
Combined with recent parliamentary answers, it emerges that a total of 60,000 compensation payments were made to 36,000 individuals between 2001 and 2005, of which more than half were for gross inconvenience. "Severe distress" to parents caused by the agency's mistakes resulted in 676 payments. The average compensation payment in the last four years was less than £200, but over 2,000 payments exceeded £1,000 and 42 over £10,000.
Prime Minister Tony Blair said in November that the CSA is not suited to its task of forcing the payment of child maintenance from divorced or separated parents. However, a final decision on the fate of the agency was postponed until after the completion of an internal review by the CSA's chief executive Stephen Geraghty, which was presented to ministers last week.
Labour MP and former minister for welfare reform Frank Field said the agency was struggling with poor staffing levels and inefficient IT systems, and added that there was growing evidence that the CSA's performance had worsened over the years. The agency cost £12 million to run last year, but only recovered £8 million from parents.