CSA forced to pay out more than £17 million in compensation to parents

The Child Support Agency has been forced to pay parents more than £17 million pounds in compensation because of a delay, administrative blunders, or from lost interest. The figures are from the last 5 years from the financial year April 2006-April 2011.

The report, which contained all of the facts and statistics, was released in a parliamentary written answer received by the Liberal Democrat MP Duncan Hames.

There were almost 65,000 consolatory payments that had to be made to parents in the past 5 years. This resulted in around £17.6 million having to be paid back. The average payout for a claim that a parent had made in the last five years was said to have been £267.

The worst year for the CSA for claim payouts was in 2008-2009. That year alone saw a total of £4.3 million pounds being paid out for mistakes that they had made. An average payout for a claim that year was a total of £292.

In the year 2010-2011 there was almost another 2 million pounds that had been paid back in compensation to parents, which saw an average claim payout of £227 for that year.

The Child maintenance commissioner Stephen Geraghty said:

“Consolatory payments are compensatory amounts paid to parents on an ex-gratia basis where delays or administrative errors have resulted in lower than expected service standards.”

“Compensation payments for lost interest are also classed as a consolatory payment.”