The Department for Work and Pensions has published an update on the work of the Child Support Agency.
The Child Support Agency (CSA) was set up in 1993 and was responsible for two primary functions:
- To calculate how much child maintenance should be paid
- If necessary collect, enforce and transfer payments between parents.
It defines child maintenance as “financial support between separated parents to help with the everyday costs of looking after children”.
In 2012 the Child Maintenance Service was created to replace the CSA, and cases managed by the CSA are now being closed.
Parents are now encouraged to reach agreement about child maintenance arrangements between themselves, with the support of the Child Maintenance Options Service, but those that are unable to do so can apply to the Child Maintenance Service, which deals with all new applications for child maintenance.
The latest statistics relating to the CSA show that it is still managing 866,700 child maintenance cases. This number will continue to fall as CSA cases are closed through the Case Closure process. Just 37,300 of the total caseload still have a current liability on CSA.
Between January and December 2017, the CSA apparently collected £193m of child maintenance; £55m of this was arrears. In the same period an estimated £58m of child maintenance was arranged through Maintenance Direct.
According to the CSA, 55% of cases with arrears have less than £1000 owed.
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Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
