Written question asked by Shailesh Vara (Conservative) on Tuesday, 7 October 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 9 October 2008. It was answered by Baroness Ussher (Labour) on Tuesday, 11 November 2008 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Children: Maintenance

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many Child Support Agency cases are being dealt with manually.

Answer: The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have therefore asked the Commissioner to write to the hon. Member with the information requested.Letter from Stephen Geraghty:"In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Commissioner for Child Maintenance.""You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Child Support Agency cases are being dealt with manually. [226097]""At the end of September 44,000 open cases were being progressed clerically which is around 3% of the total caseload. Under the Agency’s Operational Improvement Plan cases which for technical reasons can not be processed on the current computer system (CS2) were moved to our Bolton site to be administered clerically. By the end of September 2008, almost £60 million in child maintenance had been passed to parents with care whose cases are processed clerically.""Information on the number of clerical cases is routinely published in Table 20 of the Child Support Agency Quarterly Summary of Statistics (QSS), the latest copy of which is available in the House of Commons library or online at:""http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/child_support/csa_quarterly_sep08.asp""I hope you find this answer helpful."

Secondary information