Information request about complaints we have received about the CSA and ICE

Information request about complaints we have received about the CSA and ICE between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2014

I write in reference to your emails dated 19 February 2015 in which you asked for the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I have responded to your questions below.

How many CSA complaints have been upheld by the Ombudsman and of those upheld how many were in respect of the non-resident parent (NRP).

Over the same period, can you also confirm how much has been awarded to NRP and how much has been awarded to parents with care.

Between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 20014 we concluded 61 investigations where the Child Support Agency (CSA) was a complained body, of those cases 32 were upheld, 21 partly upheld and 8 not upheld. Please find below a breakdown of the data by calendar years.

Of the 61 cases, 44 of the cases have now been destroyed in line with our case file records retention policy, as a result we are unable to provide further details on those cases.

Of the cases that have not been destroyed, following a manual check I can confirm 1 complaint was about the CSA but did not involve ICE. 10 complaints that were against the CSA and the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) were brought by the non-resident parent and 6 were brought by the parent with care. Please see the tables below for a breakdown of the information we do hold.

Number of complaints against the CSA and ICE brought by a non-resident parent:

Number of complaints against the CSA and ICE brought by a parent with care:

I have interpreted question 2 of your request as the compensation amounts we asked the CSA and or ICE to pay to the complainants. Please find below the amounts we asked the bodies to pay.

Our recommendations are made in line with the Ombudsman’s Principles for Remedy.  

Between the period 1st January 2009 to 31st December 2014 can you confirm of those CSA complaints that were reviewed by the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) and were not upheld, how many were subsequently referred to the Ombudsman for review.

Over this same period, can you confirm how many ICE decisions have been overturned by the Ombudsman and of those, how many of those overturned complaints were raised by the non-resident parent.

In relation to questions three and four, between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2014 we received 543 complaints where ICE was a body complained about. In the same period we concluded 102 investigations which 12 were fully upheld, 23 partly upheld, 66 not upheld and 1 discontinued.

To determine how many of the cases we received were originally about the CSA, and of those cases were raised by a non-resident parent, we would need to examine every case.

To examine every case we received would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. Section 12 FOIA 2000 provides an exemption from the obligation to comply with a request for information where the cost of compliance is estimated to exceed the appropriate limit (£450 or 18 hours at £25/hour). We have established we would need at least a minimum of five minutes to manually check every case which would take us over the 18 hour threshold; accordingly I am unable to provide you the requested information.

If you are interested in data for a particular year such as 2014, please let me know and I will consider your request again.

Yours sincerely

FOI/DP Officer

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman