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The process of reforming the CSA legislation
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Implications of the announcement of commencementWhat has been announced?The new child support calculation formula, identified by the Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act 2000, will commence for new cases, and for certain existing cases where a new child is involved, on Monday 3rd March 2003. This is nearly a year after a delay was annnounced because of problems with the new computer system it needs. There is no statement about when existing cases will be transfered to the new scheme, but informed speculation is that this will be about 1 year later, perhaps March 2004. References:
What is the new scheme?It comprises a large set of changes to the existing child support scheme. Many of these changes are relatively small, but one, the new calculation formula, is quite large. The design of this new scheme started in earnest in 1997, with the new Labour Government. There are still some questions that I cannot answer: References:
Why was the new scheme devised?Because the CSA was demonstrably incapable of administering the existing (previous) scheme, which attempts to take a lot of factors into account and therefore requires a lot of evidence to be collected and analysed. References:
Why was the previous scheme devised?All child support systems are part of national systems to control or reduce child poverty while controlling or reducing welfare expenditure. They seek to ensure a supply of money is available for bringing up children, coming from the parents rather than taxpayers. References:
Will the new scheme work?Who knows? It is not a scheme suitable for the rest of the 21st Century - in fact, it really tries to correct the previous scheme devised for the 1990s. This web site identifies an agenda for a better scheme, and publishes some analysis and papers justifying these proposals. References:
Cost overrun?On 13th August 2002, I was interviewed by Vanessa Pike on the "Today" programme on BBC Radio 4. I said that EDS would only be responsible for the extra cost of the computer system during the delay (of nearly a year) if they were "entirely responsible" for the delay. And I said that EDS tended to be careful to conform to contracts, and might be able to show that they were not entirely responsible, with the implication that taxpayers would end up paying for the cost overrun. A news item (see below) now says "Mr Smith told MPs the government's share of the bill had gone up by about 7% over the term of the contract". David Willetts, the shadow work and pensions secretary, welcomed the announcement "with some relief after years of delay". But he said EDS, which built the new Child Support Agency computer system, had blamed interference by ministers for the delay. "We know the government is going to pay more as a result of this delay - that implies the government accepts some responsibility for what has happened," he said. It may well prove to be the case that interference and changes caused by ministers, as a result of failure to get the specification and contract for the new computer system right initially, will have cost taxpayers many millions of pounds, and caused distress and hardship to many parents and children affected by the CSA. References:
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| Page last updated: 17 January, 2004 | © Copyright Barry Pearson 2003 |