The cost of CSA cases

The Government body responsible for child maintenance has revealed the scale of the cost of administering some Child Support Agency (CSA) cases. A typical case requiring a variety of actions to ensure the payment of maintenance can cost up to around £25,000 over 18 years.

The estimate is based on the cost to the statutory maintenance service of chasing, collecting, and paying out child maintenance for a child from birth to adulthood.

It includes everything from the cost of the initial calculation and tracing the non-resident parent’s employer, though to the time spent by caseworkers on calls to both parents and an employer.

Additional to that were the procedures necessary to produce compliance, including the imposition of a deduction from earnings order on the non-resident parent’s salary.

In the actual case on which the costings are based the non-resident parent eventually paid what they owed for their child, but the work involved in getting them to meet their financial responsibilities added up to a substantial cost to the taxpayer.