Children: Maintenance

Work and Pensions written question – answered at on 15 September 2008.

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Photo of Alan Milburn Alan Milburn Labour, Darlington

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) liability orders and (b) deduction of earnings orders have been issued by the Child Support Agency to non-resident parents in (i) Darlington constituency, (ii) County Durham, (iii) the North East and (iv) the UK since 1997.

Photo of Mike O'Brien Mike O'Brien Minister of State (Pension Reform), Department for Work and Pensions

The administration of the Child Support Agency is the matter for the Chief Executive. He will write to my right hon. Friend 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 Chief Executive.

You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) Liability Orders and (b) Deduction from Earnings Orders have been issued by the Child Support Agency to non-resident parents in (i) Darlington constituency (ii) County Durham (iii) the North East and (iv) the UK since 1997.

The Agency publishes information on the range of enforcement actions undertaken at national level, including the numbers of Liability Orders granted and new Deductions from Earnings Orders/Requests, in Table 21 of the Quarterly Summary of Statistics, a copy of which can be found in the House of Commons library or online at the following address:

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/csa.asp.

Unfortunately information on the number of Deduction from Earnings Orders and Liability Orders applied for or granted prior to April 2004 is not available.

The Agency does not routinely collate enforcement information at constituency, county or regional level. The attached Table 1 provides an estimate of the information you have requested at regional level, however as this information is an estimate only, it is subject to revision. The method of estimating enforcement figures by matching postcodes to areas becomes increasingly less accurate as the geographical areas get smaller, therefore robust information below regional level is not available.

I hope you find this answer helpful.

Table 1: Estimate of Liability Orders Applied For and Deduction from Earnings Orders/Requests Issued by the Agency in the North East
Liability orders Deductions from earnings orders/requests
2004-05 445 (1)2,055
2005-06 625 4,185
2006-07 690 3,955
2007-08 950 4,400
(1) September 2004-March 2005

Notes:

1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 5.

2. No robust management information on enforcement measures exists prior to April 2004.

3. Robust management information for Deduction from Earnings Orders/Requests is also not available for December 2004, January 2005 or January 2007. At national level, figures for 2006-07 are underestimated by around 6,000. Figures for the seven months to March 2005 are underestimated by around 12,000. This means that figures for the North East for these figures are also underestimated.

4. The information provided is an estimate only and is therefore subject to revision.

5. The information on Liability Orders is on those applied for by the Agency and not the total granted by the courts.

6. Information concerning the number of Liability Orders applied for and numbers of new Deduction from Earnings Orders/Requests has been allocated to the relevant geographical area by matching the postcode of the non-resident parent with the Office for National Statistics postcode directory.

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