Office of the Commissioner
PO Box 61791
London
SW1P 9NT
E [email address]
Ref: VTR 365, 395, 396
W www.childmaintenance.org
Date: 16 June 2009
Ian Tyes [request – [email address]]
[request – [email address]]
[request – [email address]]
Dear Mr Tyes,
Re: Internal Review
Thank you for your e-mail dated 1 April 2009, and two further e-mails dated 4
April 2009. Your request is being considered under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. In your e-mail you asked for a review of your original
request for information.
Firstly, I would like to sincerely apologise for the delay in responding to your
request for information and an internal review. We are currently addressing the
difficulties that led to this problem.
I have completed an internal review and I am in a position to inform you of the
outcome. I can confirm that I was not connected with the consideration of your
original request. Having reviewed the responses we provided you, I have
decided to uphold the Agency’s original decision. I will address each review
individually.
Response: VTR365 dated 2 April 2009. Request for review received 1 April
2009.
In your original request you asked about two things; the number of cases where
arrears arrangements had been revised to bring the timescale over which arrears
would be repaid down to 2 years or less, and the proportion of a non-resident
parent’s income we anticipated taking to achieve the new repayment schedule.
The response you were issued on 2 April 2009 informed you that the
improvement in collection of child maintenance arrears was related to the Child
Support Agency’s three year Operational Improvement Plan, implemented from
April 2006. It also provided further information on the Child Maintenance
Enforcement Commission and when it expects to begin the new statutory
maintenance scheme in 2011. The response explained the policy on collecting
child maintenance debt and gave you what statistical information we hold that
appeared to be relevant to your first question. The response also explained the
Child Support Agency does not collate information on the proportion of individual
non-resident parents’ income which is used to pay child maintenance arrears,
although it does make the point that we can only collect up to 40 per cent of a
non-resident parent’s income without going to court for authorisation to take
more.
Having been provided with a comprehensive response to your question, I can
add no further information which may be of assistance to you in this matter.
Response: VTR395 dated 2 April 2009. Request for review received 4 April
09.
The response we provided for you dated 2 April 2009 explains we do not have
the information you requested. The Child Support Agency records clients’ dates
of death when notified, however, the Agency does not enquire on or record the
cause of death nor does it collate figures on the number of non-resident parents
who have died.
Response: VTR 322 April 2009. Request for review received 4 April 2009.
The response we provided for you dated 22 April 2009 explains the agreed
funding for the current three year spending review. You may find the following
link to The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission Business Plan
2008/09 is available under the section ‘publications’ on the following link:
www.childmaintenance.org
If you are still not satisfied, having received the results of my review you can ask
the Information Commissioner to look into the way your request has been
handled. The Commissioner is an independent officer who is appointed by Her
Majesty the Queen and reports directly to Parliament. The Commissioner can
see all the papers about your request and decide whether my decision is fair and
meets the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.
The Commissioner can be contacted at:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House, Water Lane
Wilmslow, Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 01625 545 745
Fax: 01625 545 510
email:
[email address]
website
www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk
Yours sincerely,
Duncan Gilchrist
Head of Policy
Child Maintenance & Enforcement Commission
Document Outline
