Lack of funds could delay full adoption of new child support IT system

Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is currently running two systems at once

The agency administrates child support payments

A new IT system to facilitate child support payments will not be used properly unless the agency that runs it receives adequate funds from government, according to the agency's head.

The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission was set up last year to replace the Child Support Agency. Its job is to ensure child support payments are made between estranged parents.

The Child Support Agency was widely acknowledged to have failed in this role, largely due to IT problems. It is estimated that the agency left some £3.5bn of payments uncollected, 60 per cent of which is now considered uncollectible.

The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission signed a new IT contract with supplier TCS to replace the system developed by supplier EDS for the Child Support Agency. It is currently operating both systems at once, which is inefficient.

"We know we are not an efficient operation because we have two computer systems, one of which still has issues with running cases," Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commissioner Stephen Geraghty told the Commons Work and Pensions Committee yesterday.

The authority wants to transfer all cases to the new system by 2014. It is more automated, provides web access, and will eventually help achieve a 30 per cent reduction in running costs and a 30 per cent increase in outputs.

But transferring cases from the old EDS system to the new TCS one - which will begin in 2011 - is expensive and requires adequate funding.

The commission has not yet received confirmation that it will receive this funds from the Department of Work and Pensions, its umbrella department, and is worried it may not as budgets are straitened in the public sector.

"That clearly is going to be an issue with the difficult public exenditure situation...[but] we're keen to lobby very hard for these resources," said Janet Paraskeva, chair of the Commission.

Asked what would happen if those resources were not forthcoming, Geraghty said the commission would have to look again at how it could transition to the new system.