September 15
2004
The CSA's fine: it's got a green travel plan
» Posted on September 15, 2004 08:43 AM » Category: UK politics

Brilliant column in today's Times by Alice Miles, which outlines the litany of incompetence by the scandalous Child Support Agency:


A quarter of parents, nearly always mothers, who apply for maintenance receive none at all, while another 20 per cent get less than they are entitled to. And these are not huge amounts: the average per child is £16 a week, a small payment which might make an enormous difference.

As well as the £976 million that the CSA has calculated is owed and believes it can recover from absent parents, there is a further £1 billion that it writes off as unrecoverable. Were the Inland Revenue to be owed £2 billion it would damn well go and get it. But because this is owed to the poorest people in the country, nobody does a thing about it.

If the CSA is failing the vulnerable, it is also doing it very expensively. Its operating costs are an astonishing 54p per £1 collected. The Inland Revenue’s, by contrast, are 1.11p per £1.

A new £456 million computer system at the CSA does not work. A simpler maintenance calculation scheme, introduced last year, has somehow ended up even less efficient than the old system. Of 300,000 applications made under the new scheme, around half have not even had calculations done yet. The backlog is building up at the rate of 30,000 new cases every three months. Figures are very hard to come by as the CSA has no accurate records, but a conservative estimate suggests that at least

250,000 families, under the new scheme and the old, are receiving no maintenance at all.

They cannot even get through to talk to anyone about it. Nearly a third of telephone calls to the agency are “abandoned” by staff. The phone system diverts calls to any centre where there is somebody available to answer, so that callers end up speaking to people who know nothing about their case. And this affects a lot of people: the CSA deals with two million parents and 1.5 million children, or one in 17 people in Britain.

...The jargon and managerial garbage in the CSA’s annual report cannot quite smother the misery. The agency may not be able to work out how many parents need help, but it does know that 2.5 per cent of its workforce are registered disabled. It ran a “substantial disability awareness programme” last year. Very useful. Over half of office waste was recycled, and “all of our major sites have developed a green travel plan”. Goodo.

Staff may not have answered calls, but they did sit as school governors, brought their children to work, and helped out in the magistrate service and with the Prince’s Trust. They also took an average of 15.6 days off sick. One in seven resigned.


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Comments

This is the tip of the iceberg in that much of what the article says could be paralled in so many other public sector agencies, including the police and local authorities as well as the ever multiplying quangoland. Public sector management (as opposed to the production of boastful, misleading leaflets, reports and 'begging letters' pleading 'underfunding' and 'lack of resources') is almost non-existent. And the reasons are obvious: the expanded 'public service' performs the role of a medieval court to the modern state. It produces ministerial sycophants with vested interest agendas who have become in every sense of the term parasites.

This government has eradicated whatever remained of an independent civil service culture with values dedicated to the service of this country. There is no longer a country to be served. It has been denied, denigrated, destroyed and invaded and everyone is out for his (now mostly her) own, all disguised by deluges of nauseating cant to cover up the sickening betrayal that New Labour represents.

Stated by: Michael on September 15, 2004 12:57 PM

Obvious suggestion, put private debt collection agencies on the case. Maybe region by region. They have a lot of experience dealing with collecting small amounts efficiently - for a small commission. Some are big companies - Intrum Justia for example.

Stated by: Guido Fawkes on September 15, 2004 5:05 PM

Going along with Guido's comment (and, by the way, better luck next time with the gunpowder), put the rabid dog of collection agencies, the one the BBC successfully employs to extract its unjustified licence fee from single mothers living on welfare and the one that has several times been voted the most intrustive company in Britain. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Capita. They'll wring the money out of the bastards, be assured.

Stated by: Verity on September 16, 2004 12:59 AM

Well, Having been a consistence law obiding payer to the CSA for four years, i am appauled by the unprofessionalism and to some extent prejudice, of the agency. In order to prevent the 'robin hood' scenario, why are there no discussions with regards to the integration of CSA payments, access rights and benefit fraud. If only these 3 areas were amalgomated.........

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