Child Support Agency takes more than seven years to do the right thing

What happened

Ms C's former partner was working and also claiming benefits. The Agency was aware of this from as early as spring 2005 but it failed to take the correct action. When Ms C's former partner stopped paying maintenance in winter 2005, the Agency decided that he did not owe any child maintenance and later refunded the money that he had correctly paid.

Ms C told the Agency about its mistakes from 2006 onwards but it did not change her former partner's maintenance assessment or correct its mistakes, even after it realised that it had got things wrong.

Ms C regularly asked the Agency to make her an advance payment of the unpaid maintenance because of its mistakes but it refused to do so. When it refused again in summer 2011, Ms C made an attempt on her own life. The Agency was told about this but did not change the way that it handled the case as a result.

Independent Case Examiner (ICE) investigated the complaint and recommended that the Agency make Ms C an advance payment for all the unpaid maintenance plus interest. It also recommended that it make her a consolatory payment of £500.

What we found

We agreed with ICE's investigation and findings but we concluded that its recommendations did not go far enough to recognise the impact on Ms C of the Agency's poor handling of the case and its failure to make the right adjustments for her once it became aware of her attempted suicide.

Putting it right

The Agency paid Ms C a further consolatory payment of £3,000 and arranged for a senior manager to apologise to her.