Unreasonable delay by Child Support Agency

What happened

In 2009, the Independent Complaints Examiner ( ICE) had tried to resolve Mrs R's complaint that the Child Support Agency (CSA) had handled her maintenance case poorly. As a result of ICE's actions, the Agency paid Mrs R a consolatory payment of £750 and an exceptional advance payment of maintenance.

Mrs R was still unhappy about the Agency's actions and complained to us that it had not collected child support maintenance arrears from her child's father that she had been owed since 2004.

This had caused her and her family financial and emotional distress. Mrs R wanted the Agency to pay her an exceptional advanced payment of maintenance for the arrears due to her.

What we found

We partly upheld Mrs R's complaint. There were around two years of delay when the Agency did not take any action to progress Mrs R's case.

On one occasion, the Agency unreasonably decided not to take any enforcement action to recover the maintenance from the child's father as it believed that Mrs R did not want it to pursue the arrears. The Agency's failings caused Mrs R inconvenience, stress, worry and frustration and this would have affected her health.

Even if the Agency had acted more quickly, Mrs R may not have received the child support due to her. This is because the child's father deliberately avoided his responsibilities and made no attempt to pay what he owed.

The Agency's attempts at enforcement were correct, despite being unsuccessful and limited for some time because of a bankruptcy restriction in place.

We were satisfied that the Agency took correct enforcement action. It cannot be held responsible for the child's father's failure to pay the money owed. In addition, despite the Agency's delays, Mrs R's case did not meet the criteria for it to make her an exceptional advance payment of maintenance.

Putting it right

The Agency apologised to Mrs R and paid her £350 in recognition of the impact of its failings.