The government should put together a new strategy for the Child Support Agency (CSA) which could include options for scrapping it as a result of ongoing IT failures, according to a parliamentary report issued on 26 January, 2005.
MPs on the Work and Pensions Committee have called on ministers to tell the truth about the CSA's failing IT systems and announce targets for transferring cases across from old databases.
Inadequate IT systems are to blame for many of the problems at the CSA, says the committee. It wants a detailed strategy for the agency, including an abandonment option to be made available to parliament before Easter.
The committee also wants the National Audit Office to investigate the background to the CSA's contract with EDS, and called for a debate in parliament.
Sir Archy Kirkwood, who chairs the committee, said: "The CSA is operating on borrowed time. Rapid, radical action is needed if the department is to deliver a service that children deserve. If the agency cannot be rescued, then it must be replaced."
Liberal Democrat shadow work and pensions secretary Steve Webb said the report reinforces the view that the CSA should be scrapped.
"The Inland Revenue already holds information about family incomes and children so could easily take over the assessment of child maintenance," he said. "The Inland Revenue would also be far more effective than the CSA at collecting maintenance."
The CSA was set up in 1993 to assess and collect child maintenance payments to single parents. The agency's IT systems, supplied by EDS at cost of £456m, have been unreliable and resulted in a poor service to parents.
One parent told the committee: "I rang twice a week for 14 months, each phone call being may be 20 minutes or half an hour… no one will ever ring you back, but you are always encouraged to ring back later, which increases your phone bill."
The agency is dealing with cases involving 1.4 million children. Its old computer system has a caseload of just over one million children, while a new system (CS2) intended to improve case handling contains a mere 330,000 cases. Nearly a quarter of a million cases have yet to be processed and a substantial backlog is building up.
Doug Smith, the CSA's chief executive, resigned in November 2004, after admitting that he was "seriously disappointed" with the operation of the new computer system during its first 18 months.
The introduction of CS2 is "yet another episode in the continuing saga of IT failures within government in general and the Department of Work and Pensions specifically", says the report.
The MPs conclude that it could take a further five years for the CSA to deliver the full functionality and performance that parliament expected to be in place by 2001.
Talkback
This is not my opinion this is fact. I work for the CSA and have done so for the past eight years. Whenever there is a ripple in the media about the agencies, failings sure enough when we go into work there is a management steer which will doctor the figures to produce for parliament in the agencies favour.
My opinion is that having worked previously in the insurance industry for 15 years where one has to pass exams to sell policies as it affects peoples incomes. With the CSA six weeks training and almost fresh out of school sometimes, an officer can assess a case examining financial documents and salaries and have a huge inpact on an individuals finances and life without any qualifications
Previous comment sounds good.
Just to add my experiance as an IT sometimes called engineer, Projects tend to suffer from missmanagement due to inexperiance of what effects the work flow of the end user of the IT system. The goals also chnge faster than documentation leaving everyone with a different idea of what is to correct response to a problem.
Oh and the usual... Assumption being the mother of all £$*&up's!
The pirvate sector is not the answer as they have to same said problems, they just hide them better!
There needs to be more thought and action put into getting the right information handled well. IT sector workers are often to worst offenders at managing information as they just don't have time to work it out on the job, as things need to be done yesterday so you just do what you know and try to keep going.
IT needs to get professional ,not just wearing suits and saying we have the answer your looking for buy this !