FAILING CSA COMPUTER LEAVES LONE SCOTTISH PARENTS MISSING OUT ON MILLIONS
July 6, 2004 12:00 AM
Independent research commissioned from the House of Commons Library by the Liberal Democrats shows that thousands of lone Scottish parents are missing out on over £4million a year.
The Government has admitted that the new £400million CSA computer is "still not working well enough" and may have to be scrapped. The new CSA system was originally due to go live in October 2001 and was finally switched on in March 2003. The Government has said that old cases would only be transferred onto the new system once it was working well - expected to be round a year later. A year on, and cases still have not been transferred.
John Thurso MP, Liberal Democrat spokesperson on Scottish Affairs, said:
"Everyone who has had the misfortune to come into contact with the CSA knows what a shambles it is. It's an outrage that so many people are not getting the badly needed cash they have been promised.
"The Government continues to throw money at the CSA, yet under Labour the CSA has gone from bad to worse. We now have not just one, but two systems that don't work properly and thousands of lone Scottish parents are missing out. These parents, amongst the poorest in the UK, have been let down and left out of pocket.
"It's high time the CSA was scrapped and the Inland Revenue was allowed to do the sums and make sure people pay up on time."
The lone parents losing out are existing on low-income benefits and are amongst the poorest in the UK. The new computer system provides the extra child maintenance premium. The old system does not.
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