Number of open CSA cases decreased to 71,700 in September 2020
The number of CSA cases held on CMS IT systems decreased from 75,000 in June 2020 to 71,700 in September 2020. The caseload has been steadily declining since December 2014 and declining sharply since December 2018. The reduction in caseload is due to the closure of cases as outlined in the child maintenance compliance and arrears strategy. All cases on the CSA computer system have now been closed.
The CSA historical debt balance continues to reduce. The amount of CSA debt held on CMS IT systems has decreased from £449.1 million in June 2020 to £428.7 million in September 2020. The outstanding debt balance has been steadily declining since December 2016 and declining sharply since September 2018. Debt owed to government and debt which has no reasonable chance of being collected is written off.
Between 13 December 2018, when the compliance and arrears strategy work started, and 30 September 2020:
- The CSA has written to 242,200 parents with care to ask if they want a last attempt to be made to try to collect the debt owed to them. This includes all 134,700 parents with an eligible case on the CSA system and 107,500 parents with a case on the CMS system.
- Collection of arrears is either complete or in process for 25,000 of the 26,300 case groups on which parents have requested debt collection and they have reached the debt collection stage.
- 579,400 cases with non-paying historical debt have had the debt adjusted or written off, of which 169,000 were on the CMS IT system. System records showed the cases had a total debt value of £1,935.5 million, of which £853 million was owed to government only.
For the full data, click here. For a House of Commons Library briefing describing the UK Government's policy to write-off arrears arising from the 1993 and 2003 child maintenance schemes (which takes account of the above data), click here.
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