News story

2nd December 2003

Computer Bungle Hits Local Families

Northavon MP Steve Webb has uncovered a computer bungle which is costing thousands of South Gloucestershire families hundred of pounds in uncollected child maintenance. The breakdown has occurred in the new computer system installed earlier this year by the Child Support Agency to help ensure that children receive financial support after their parents separate. Under the new rules, child maintenance is calculated under a simple formula where “non-resident” parents pay 15% of their income in maintenance if they have one child, 20% for two children and 25% for three
children. This system is being implemented on a new computer system and has applied since March 2003.

But local MP Steve Webb has obtained information from the Government which shows that only a tiny fraction of the families who have applied to the CSA for maintenance have actually received any money. The computer problems are so bad that CSA staff are
reported to be using pen, paper and pocket calculators in order to get the assessments done.

An estimated three thousand South Gloucestershire families depend on the Child Support Agency to collect maintenance for them, and the CSA continues to be a major reason why people contact their MP. Northavon MP Steve Webb is now calling on the Government to take urgent action to get the computer sorted out. He said:

“At the end of the day it is local children who are the losers because of this fiasco. The Government has spent hundreds of millions of pounds on a new computer system that appears not to be up to the job. Every extra week of delay is costing local families, and some of this money may never be recovered. The Government must act quickly to resolve this shambles”.