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The CSA History Where it Went Wrong Part 1

CSA History (Part 1)The Old SystemThe Child Support Agency (CSA) was a UK Government executive agency which formed part of the Department for Works and pension in Great Britain and the Department for Social Development in Northern Ireland launched on 5th April, 1993. The CSA was responsible for implementing the 1991 Child Support Act and subsequent legislation.OverviewChild support maintenance, is the contribution from a non-resident parent towards the financial cost of raising their child, paid to the person with whom the child lives, (usually the other parent), referred to as "person/parent with care". The level and conditions of payment can either be mutually agreed between the two parties, or, in case of disagreement, decided by legal means. Prior to the launch of the CSA, child support disputes were handled by a court based system. This system did not have the power to trace absent parents, and was criticized as "arbitrary and unfair". The CSA was given the task of assessing payments to ensure consistency, with powers to collect and distribute the maintenance payments itself.Functions and InvolvementThe CSA's function is twofold, encompassing calculation of how much child maintenance is due (based on current legislation and rules) and collection and transferal of the payment from the non-resident parent to the person with care.For the CSA to become involved in a case, their services must be requested by one of the parents. Legislation also allows children in Scotland to initiate a case against one or both Non-Resident-Parents. With a person with care benefits, the CSA should become automatically involved. (In July 2006, plans were outlined which would remove this automatic involvement). The CSA cannot get involved, even upon request, if the non-resident parent lives abroad, if a written agreement made prior to 5th April, 1993, is in place, or if a court order regarding maintenance was made before 3rd March, 2003. (except in cases where the parent with care claims Income Support or Jobseekers Allowance). Calculations and SystemsA new method of child maintenance and calculation came into effect on 3rd March 2003. The previous method used a "complex formula of up to 108 pieces of information, by first calculating the total child maintenance required based on the children's ages, then calculating the non-resident parents income after various allowances were subtracted, and finally working out what portion of the calculated maintenance was to be paid by the non-resident parent based on their income.Under the new method the basis for calculating maintenance has been simplified, with a fixed percentage of the non-resident parents net income being taken, from 15% for one child, 20% for two, and 25% for three or more. The maintenance was also reduced if the non-resident parent had children in their current family, reducing the payment by 15% if they had one, 20% if they had two, and 25% for three or more. Cases assessed using the previous method will remain that way until the new arrangements have been proven viable. Some special cases may be transferred to the new arrangements before to this, for example if the non-resident parent is also subject to a separate claim made since the new method was introduced. As of December 2005, 930,000 cases (63% of the total) remain under the old rulesA new computer system, Child Support 2 (CS2) was introduced to replace the Child Support Computer System (CSCS), which was only designed to calculate the old method. However, to date, not all cases have been transferred across; of 38,300 cases under the "old rules" awaiting clearance, 16,900 are still on CSCS. Of those 16,900 cases, 13,000 have been suspended because the non-resident parent was unable to be found.