CSA replacement to be developed by TCS

TCS will develop systems to support child maintenance payments

Indian outsourcer Tata Consultancy Services is to develop the new IT systems that will replace the beleaguered Child Support Agency (CSA) system that became a byword for government computer failures.

The supplier has been commissioned by the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (CMEC), the body formed in November 2008 to set up a new statutory child maintenance scheme to replace the two schemes currently provided by the CSA from 2011.

Unlike the problematic bespoke software developed for the CSA at a cost of £456m, CMEC is looking to TCS to install packaged software available off-the-shelf.

“In learning the lessons of the past we will not attempt to reinvent the wheel and order a single, purpose-built IT system,” said Child Maintenance Commissioner Stephen Geraghty.

“The collection and payment of child maintenance is not dissimilar from transactions performed millions of times a day for financial organisations around the world. We want to draw on that technical expertise and provide to future child maintenance clients the kind of service they should expect,” he said.

“That means giving people much better access to information about their case; most importantly how much they owe or are due to receive. If they wish they should be able to access their account on the web and receive update notifications by email and text message.”

The CSA has been beset by problems, much of which were IT related.

Some £3.5bn of maintenance payment has still not been collected by the agency since its inception, 60 per cent of which is now considered uncollectable. In 2000, the agency signed a £427m, 10-year contract with supplier EDS to provide the technology to support its work - a contract that was later renegotiated twice, in 2002 and 2005, to £456m.

“Many of the justified complaints against the old CSA were the result of the limitations of its IT systems,” said Geraghty.

“While we have made good progress since 2006 in improving those systems, it is essential that IT issues will not distract from a parent’s duty to financially provide for their children.”

TCS will integrate a number of software applications to support the newfuture scheme, to cater for functions such as case management, case assessment and payment calculations, automated scheduling of payments, financial and arrears management and enforcement.

The software products to be used include Oracle’s Siebel customer relationship management system and the TCS BaNCS banking product, as well as other applications from Experian, Genysys and IBM.

CMEC said the choice of TCS was based on “the quality of the technical solution, value-for-money and the allocation of risk between the parties.”