£450m EDS system under fire again as child support complaints rise

Complaints to the Child Support Agency (CSA) have risen by over 50 per cent in the past year, as problems with the new £450m computer system continue to dog the agency.

CSA watchdog the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) examines complaints referred on by the CSA, and its annual report revealed referrals were up to 2,150 for 2003/2004 compared to 1,419 the previous year.

The report assesses the impact of the new child support reforms introduced last year to crack down on parents who fail to pay maintenance. The reforms were delayed by the introduction of the late multi-million pound CS2 system from EDS.

While the report acknowledges success in calculating maintenance on the new IT system in record times on many cases, the ICE said it still has concerns.

"Regrettably, problems that have arisen with the computer system have affected every part of the process. In particular, new cases, which have connections to others already being dealt with by the Agency under the old legislative rules, have been subject to persistent system failures," the report said.

One of the key concerns with the IT system highlighted in the report is the inability of CSA staff to record details of customer contact on the system. Previously they could record text notes to detail communications with customers.

"The result of this is that discussions with customer, details of advice given, action instigated and commitments made by the Agency are not generally recorded. As a consequence, when customers telephone the Agency to check on progress, the person dealing with them is unable to determine this from the management information system. This situation is unsatisfactory to customer and staff, and will undoubtedly result in complaints," the report said.

The ICE report said it is not reasonable to expect people to wait until computer problems are resolved "particularly when there is no clear indication of when this will be" and has urged the Agency to review its contingency measures for manually calculating maintenance. But even this is not without problems.

"The Agency has contingency measures to provide a clerical calculation of maintenance if necessary, but this course of action is not taken lightly. The management of the calculation and collection of maintenance without the assistance of a modern computer system is not without risk, and the Agency is currently unable to say how it could return a clerically processed application to the computer-managed system," the report said.

Doug Smith, CEO of the CSA, said in a statement: "As EDS improves its computer service, we will continue to make improvements in our performance and work to provide a professional, efficient and sensitive service for all our clients."

Work and Pensions Minister Patricia Hollis said she had noted the ICE's concerns about the new child support system and said staff are working hard to resolve difficulties "caused principally by problems with the EDS computer and telephony systems".