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Children: Maintenance

Answer

The administration of the Child Support Agency is the matter for the chief executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.Letter from Stephen Geraghty, 29 September 2008:"In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.""You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps are taken when child support payments are wrongly awarded because of faults in computer systems; and if he will make a statement [221194]; and""How many child support overpayments there have been due to computer errors in (a) England (b) Wakefield District and (c) Hemsworth constituency [221214]; and""What account is taken of the financial situation of the families involved when Child Support Agency overpayments are collected. [221215]""Section 41B of the Child Support Act 1991 enables the Secretary of State to recover payments of child maintenance from the parent with care, where those payments are not validly made due to a computer fault or any other error, or where the non-resident parent has overpaid. In these circumstances, the Secretary of State will provide the parent with care with a written demand for repayment. In some cases, it may be possible to recover overpayments by temporarily reducing any ongoing maintenance due to the parent with care.""In the event that a parent with care is required to repay any overpaid child maintenance in accordance with Section 41B, the Secretary of State must have first considered the impact on any child affected by the decision. The Secretary of State may decide not to pursue recovery in the event that taking such action would have a seriously adverse impact on any child within the parent with care's household.""Information on the number of child support overpayments made due to computer error is not available.""I hope you find this answer helpful."

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

221215; 479 c2363W

Session

2007-08

Subjects

Children Maintenance

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk