CSA Quarterly Statistics

On 1 November 2008, the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission took over responsibility for the Child Support Agency functions and the first summary of quarterly figures since the takeover became available at the end of April 2009.

Main Findings

• At the end of March 2009, the CSA caseload stood at 1.28 million.

• The volume of uncleared current scheme applications has fallen by 57,700 since March 2008 and at 49,200 (including clerical cases) is at its lowest since May 2003. This represents a fall of 54% since March 2008. At the end of March 2009, there were 64,900 uncleared applications across both schemes (not including clerical performance), a fall of 52% over the previous twelve months.

• In the quarter ending March 2009, 71% of all cases in which maintenance was due had either received maintenance via the CSA collection service, or had a maintenance direct arrangement in place.

• In the three months to March 2009, maintenance had been collected or arranged by the Agency on behalf of 779,800 children.

• In the year to March 2009, the Agency collected or arranged £1,132M in child maintenance (regular and arrears), of which £158M was arrears.

• In the quarter ending March 2009, on average, where maintenance had been charged and then paid via the collection service, the Agency had collected 91% of the amount due.

• Of those current scheme applications where the Agency has made a calculation and set up a collection schedule on which payments were expected from the non-resident parent, 92% of cases have made at least one payment to the parent with care.

• At the end of the 2007/08 financial year (latest available), the total amount of outstanding money owed by non resident parents to parents with care stood at £3.8 billion, whilst this represented an increase of £120 million since 2006/07, the average monthly rate of increase has slowed from £16 million to £10 million.

• At the end of March 2009, the average current scheme maintenance calculation was £23 per week (including zero calculations), and that for old scheme assessments was £18.

• At the year ending March 2009, the Agency had answered 99% of telephone calls available to staff to answer. The average waiting time was 13 seconds. This is up from 98% answered with a waiting time of 20 seconds in the year ending March 2008.

• In March 2009, there were 9,200 staff employed by the CSA (measured on a full-time equivalent basis) this is down from 9,500 in March 2008.


Full summary Source Child Maintenace and Enforcement Commission 29 April 2009