Enforcement
- How many parents are not paying the child maintenance they owe?
- What results has enforcement action had in comparison with last year?
- Is the Child Support Agency working with bailiffs?
- What are you doing to find the parents who deliberately avoid the CSA?
- What do you do to stop people giving false information, such as lying about their name or address?
- What is the CSA doing internally to improve things?
- Does the CSA demand for arrears to be 'paid immediately'?
Q. How many parents are not paying the child maintenance they owe?
A. As at June 2008 around 31% of non-resident parents are still non compliant. That means for the 552,300 cases where maintenance should have been paid, we collected it in 378,400 cases. (174,000 cases are currently classed as 'non-compliant').
Q. What results has enforcement action had in comparison with last year?
A. The total number of enforcement processes undertaken is continuing to rise. Figures for May 2007 to April 2008 show a 18% increase on the previous year. (Around 118,610 processes to April 2008, in comparison to 100,100 to April 2007.)
Between May 2007 and April 2008 (figures rounded to the nearest five):
- 18,370 liability orders were granted in England and Wales and 1,560 in Scotland. This is where a court legally recognises there is a debt to be paid and allows us to take further action. (Up from 12,850 in England and Wales and 930 in Scotland between May 2006 and April 2007.)
- 25 people were imprisoned (down from 40 between May 2006 and April 2007)
- 465 people received suspended prison sentences
- 1,280 County Court Judgments (CCJs) were granted
- 1,805 3rd Party Debt Orders were granted in England and Wales and 540 Arrestments were granted in Scotland
- For the 07/08 financial year we collected £269m by taking the money direct from parents' earnings.
The section on our enforcement campaign contains some more examples of this.
Q. Is the Child Support Agency working with bailiffs and Debt Collection Agencies?
A. Since the end of summer 2006 the Child Support Agency has also been working with private debt-collection agencies to recover more than £68 million of historic debt. Using and threatening to use debt-collection agencies has obtained £14.4m in unpaid child maintenance. We have transferred more than 63,000 cases over to debt-collection agencies.
Before we refer cases to the debt-collection agencies we send a seven day warning letter to clients to let them know what is happening and ask them to pay. As a result of these letters, we collected an additional £7m by the end of June 2008.
Q. What are you doing to find the parents who deliberately avoid the CSA?
A. Unfortunately there are some parents who go to great lengths to avoid paying what they owe for their children.
The CSA is making more use of information held by HM Revenue and Customs and credit reference agencies to trace these parents. In particularly difficult cases, we are now referring cases to specialist private sector tracing agencies.
Since October 2006, 8,000 CSA employees have had access to data from credit reference agencies to help them trace non-resident parents who previously could not be found through other means.
Q. What do you do to stop people giving false information, such as lying about their name or address?
A. It is a criminal offence if we ask someone to provide information and they fail to do so or give us information that they know is false. If someone fails to give us the information we need, or gives us information that they know is false, they could be taken to court and fined up to £1,000.
If a non-resident parent does not supply us with the information required we can apply a 'default maintenance decision' at a level above the average weekly maintenance calculation. We will attempt to enforce payment of this liability until the non-resident parent supplies the required information and a more accurate calculation can be made.
Q. What is the CSA doing internally to improve things?
A. We are increasing our enforcement action as part of our Operational Improvement Plan. Figures for the number of enforcement processes between May 2007 and April 2008 show a 17% increase on the previous year.
We are quadrupling the number of people we employ on enforcement work. Special Debt and Legal Enforcement teams have both now been established and an additional 300 people are deployed on work associated with the referral of debt cases to debt-collection agencies.
We have secured changes in the law which means we can now collect up to 40% of non-resident parents' net income.
Q. Does the CSA demand for arrears to be 'paid immediately'?
A. The action we take depends on each case and parents would be notified of any action to be taken. They would be asked to contact us as soon as possible to discuss their situation and how they will pay the money back.
We may be able to take into account the non-resident parent's circumstances and can offer a number of payment options. If these are declined or the parent does not keep to the agreed arrangements we will take further action.
