New CSA computer system fails to deliver

Tens of thousands of single parents are facing chronic delays in support payments because of the latest problems to hit a new government computer system.

Official figures show that only 4% of the 150,000 people applying for payment to the Child Support Agency (CSA) have received any cash since the new ?300m system was launched in April.

The figures, released in response to a parliamentary question from the Liberal Democrats, also showed that only a third of the applications to the agency had been processed. Of these 17% of assessments were incorrect.

The Liberal Democrat's work and pensions spokesman, Steve Webb, blamed the problems on a new computer system that he said had "failed spectacularly".

The system was purchased from the American firm EDS. The government is withholding 15% of the monthly payments to EDS because of the problems.

Mr Webb claimed that the failure of the system meant that staff were having to work out assessment's manually.

"It is scandalous that this multimillion pound computer system is so completely unreliable that CSA staff are having get pocket calculators out simple to keep the backlog down."

He added: "Children are the real losers because of the CSA failure to collect and enforce maintenance payments. They are missing out on the cash entitled to them because of government bungling."

A spokesman for the department for work and pensions acknowledged there were problems but accused Mr Webb of misusing the figures. He pointed out that no payments were made in 40% of cases usually because applications were withdrawn.