Wales: Kiddies nightmare

Elin Cadifor Producer, Political Unit BBC Cymru Wales

Children are not receiving the financial support to which they are entitled because of failings at the Child Support Agency, according to new claims.

Wayne David, Labour MP for Caerphilly, says that a number of his constituents have experienced unacceptable delays.

The Child Support Agency is the organisation which ensures that fathers provide the necessary financial support for a child or children when a relationship breaks down.

Angela Lawford's experience of the CSA is poor

But Angela Lawford's experience of the CSA is one of a catalogue of errors.

Angela lives in Caerphilly and has two children from her first marriage.

It took six months for the agency to get in touch with her ex-partner, but even though he's co-operative, she is still waiting for payments because of delays in the system.

They just don't seem to care to be honest. They have said there are thousands of people in the same boat as me.

New system flawed?

This is the second time that Angela has made a claim to the CSA - the first time was before the reforms to the system.

When I first spoke to them in 1999 they just seemed to know what was happening, but the new system is a disgrace.

Her MP, Wayne David, has called on the government to introduce immediate improvements to the CSA.

A number of my constituents have come forward with examples of unacceptable delays.

In one instance the CSA had failed to make an assessment of a father's maintenance contribution after nearly 10 months.

When there was an assessment made there was a further delay because of computer problems.

Eventually, the problems were sorted out ... but the problems should never have occurred in the first place.

In March 2003 changes were made to the way the CSA calculate how much absent parents should pay in maintenance payments.

Computer problems

The reforms were delayed from April 2002 because of computer problems.

Thousands of single parents have been left short of money

But due to continuing problems with the multi million pound computer system intended to speed up payments, thousands of single parents have been left short of money.

Liberal Democrat Work and Pensions spokesman, Steve Webb, claims that in the first six months since the new system was introduced, only one third of applications for child maintenance have been processed, and only 4% of claimants have received money.

The government disputes these figures.

A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said that nearly half of the claims already processed had been closed off as parents had resolved disputes between themselves.

The Work and Pensions Minister Patricia Hollis says that the government is now handling more cases under the new system, and that the problems with the new computer system are just teething problems.

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