Written question asked by Anne Begg (Labour) on Friday, 13 March 2015, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 17 March 2015. It was answered by Steve Webb (Liberal Democrat) on Wednesday, 18 March 2015 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Children: Maintenance

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's 2013 Impact Assessment No. DWP0031, if he will provide a detailed breakdown of the (a) £123 million estimated cost of caseworker activity related to Child Support Agency (CSA) case arrears as part of the CSA case closure programme and (b) £20 million estimated cost of setting up areas on the Child Maintenance Service System; and if he will make a statement.

Answer: The impact assessment (para 93) included high level estimates of (a) the costs (around £103m) of caseworker activity to review and update estimates of arrears on the existing systems for the circa 1.2m cases expected to have arrears when CSA liability ends and (b) the costs (around £20m) to set up arrears on the new child maintenance system. These estimates were based on broad assumptions about the volume and timings of relevant activities and before the detailed business processes and IT involved had been designed or developed.

Secondary information