Child support body under pressure again

Tom Young, Computing, Wednesday 24 February 2010 at 17:21:00

An increase in cases is putting strain on an already fragile operation, say
MPs

The new body responsible for enforcing the payment of child maintenance by
absent parents is facing an increase in cases which cannot be dealt with by its
flawed IT system, according to a
report
by MPs.

The work and pensions select committee said the Child Maintenance and
Enforcement Commission (CMEC), which took over from the Child Support Agency in
administering child support payments, is having to process more and more cases
by hand despite a �107m upgrade to its IT system in 2008.

The Commission has seen the number of cases which have to be dealt with
manually by officials "balloon" from around 19,000 in 2006 to 75,000 in
September last year and a predicted 108,000 in September this year.

The committee said the CMEC had made substantial progress in clearing the
backlog of cases and speeding up claims - but as of September last year, 27 per
cent of absent parents were still not paying maintenance.

"The strain of managing a ballooning clerical caseload in the old and current
schemes in addition to running three different IT systems in parallel, while
preparing for an increase in caseload for the Options Service will be a very
substantial challenge," says the MP's report.

"The success of the future scheme rests on the Commission?s ability to rise
to this challenge. The successful and prompt progression to the single future
scheme is essential for the future of the child maintenance system."

The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission signed a new IT contract
with supplier TCS to replace the system developed by supplier EDS for the Child
Support Agency when it took over responsibilities in 2008. It is currently
operating both systems at once, which is inefficient.

The authority wants to transfer all cases to the new system by 2014. But
transferring cases from the old EDS system to the new TCS one - which will begi
n in 2011 - is expensive and time consuming.

And an increase in cases is putting the Commission under extra pressure,
according to the committee report.

"We are very concerned that the escalating costs of clerical administration
of cases risks placing an intolerable burden on the Commission at just this
crucial moment," it says.

Full story at http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2258471/child-support-body-under