Stephen Lloyd – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Lloyd on 2014-06-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference the Answer of 27 June 2012, Official Report, column 296, on children: maintenance, what proportion of Child Support Agency arrears cases include arrears that have been suspended; and what steps have since been taken to establish the proportion of cases where arrears have been (a) temporarily and (b) permanently suspended.

Steve Webb

As of March 2014 approximately 48% of Child Support Agency cases with arrears contained an amount of suspended arrears.

Analysis of a sample of the caseload at November 2013 identified that approximately 14% of suspended arrears on the CS2 computer system were permanently suspended, leaving 86% temporarily suspended.

It is not possible to produce the proportion of cases temporarily or permanently suspended on the CSCS computer system because the information is not readily available and has not previously been published as official statistics. We will consider whether it is feasible to produce the statistics requested within the disproportionate cost limit, and if so, will issue them in an official statistics release in accordance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

Notes:

Management information on suspended debt is not available for off system cases, therefore the proportion of cases with arrears that contain suspended arrears has been calculated using CS2 and CSCS cases only.