06 July 2007
Senior MPs this week branded the Child Support Agency one of the 'greatest public administration disasters of recent times'.
The Public Accounts Committee examined the implementation of child support reforms that took effect in March 2003. Its July 5 report was sternly critical of the money thrown at a new IT system that was intended to underpin the reforms.
PAC chair Edward Leigh said: 'The Department for Work and Pensions never really knew what it was doing in dealing with the contractors EDS and the system was a turkey from day one. Three years after it was introduced, it still had 500 defects and staff confidence has been seriously damaged.'
The report notes that the failure of non-resident parents to pay maintenance can cause real hardship, yet the CSA has still not made full use of its enforcement powers. Around £3.5bn has not been collected by the agency – 60% of which is now deemed uncollectible – and 275,000 cases are stuck in the system.
The CSA is due to be replaced by the new Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission next year but Leigh said it was not clear how the new organisation would benefit citizens.
'The government must keep an iron grip on this new organisation to ensure that the lessons have been learned,' he said.
The Liberal Democrats this week predicted that 'C-Mec' was doomed to fail because of plans to reduce staff numbers from around 11,000 now by almost 2,000 over two years.
David Laws, the former LibDem work and pensions spokesman, said: 'These planned cuts are insane when the agency continues to have vast backlogs of cases.'
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