Hutton confirms CSA axe
CSA 'to be axed'
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Monday, 24, Jul 2006 05:20
John Hutton has today confirmed that the troubled Child Support Agency (CSA) is to be replaced with a small, less ambitious version.
Speaking to MPs, the work and pensions secretary outlined the "radical" changes that would be introduced, including the fact that parents would be expected to conclude their own maintenance agreements and parents that do not meet payment responsibilities could find their passports suspended.
"Only a minority of cases handled by the CSA actually receive any maintenance at all," he said.
"There is a cost to the taxpayers of about £200 million a year and levels of customer service, although they have improved recently, have never reached the standard of quality and consistency that the public and our constituents are entitled to expect. The need for radical overhaul is clear."
Since being launched in 1993, the CSA has amassed debts of more than £3 billion and left 300,000 cases open, the minister explained. The government's decision about the heavily-criticised agency comes after an independent review from Sir David Henshaw said it was fundamentally failing.
The new agency will also be given powers to impose curfews on absent parents to prevent them going out after work passports if they refuse to co-operate.
Ministers believe that parents will be happy to make their own arrangements for child maintenance as it will cut bureaucracy.
As part of the proposals, parents will be allowed to keep more of their maintenance allowance before it affects their benefits, a move that the government believes will encourage more errant fathers to provide for their children.
Commenting on the reforms, the Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesman, David Laws, urged the government not to simply write of the agency's debts and backlog of cases.
"The government must not abandon the hundreds of thousands of families failed by 13 years of CSA incompetence," said Mr Laws, who claimed that ministers might be tempted to "wash their hands of many of the most difficult cases".
John Wheatley, senior policy office at the Citizens Advice charity, said: "This is a huge admission of failure, but our chief concern is whether parents will get clear information quickly about what it means for them. If they do not, there could be widespread confusion about what they should not do, particularly those in the existing system."