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| Child Support Agency success celebrated before it goes | Child Support Agency success celebrated before it goes |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Ministers have hailed record success rates at the Child Support Agency - months away from scrapping it. | Ministers have hailed record success rates at the Child Support Agency - months away from scrapping it. |
| More parents than ever are contributing to their children's upbringing, the government said. | More parents than ever are contributing to their children's upbringing, the government said. |
| But from next year the CSA is being replaced and parents encouraged to make their own maintenance arrangements. | But from next year the CSA is being replaced and parents encouraged to make their own maintenance arrangements. |
| Work and pensions minister Steve Webb is expected to say later that over 80% of separated families using the CSA are paying towards their children. | |
| This suggests the CSA's success rate is up from two in every three parents five years ago. | |
| But Mr Webb will say that what the figures actually show is that "with a little help and support, thousands of parents could be coming to their own flexible arrangements for their children". | |
| Communicate better | Communicate better |
| The CSA was set up in the early 1990s to calculate and enforce maintenance payments from parents who do not have sole care of their children. | The CSA was set up in the early 1990s to calculate and enforce maintenance payments from parents who do not have sole care of their children. |
| For the agency to get involved, one of the parents must request it to do so. | For the agency to get involved, one of the parents must request it to do so. |
| But in what Mr Webb will describe as the biggest shake-up of the child support system "for a generation", it is due to be replaced by the end of 2013 with a Child Maintenance Service to deal only with the most intractable cases. | But in what Mr Webb will describe as the biggest shake-up of the child support system "for a generation", it is due to be replaced by the end of 2013 with a Child Maintenance Service to deal only with the most intractable cases. |
| "What we're trying to do is... empower parents to take control of their own lives and come to their own family-based arrangements to support their children," he is expected to say. | "What we're trying to do is... empower parents to take control of their own lives and come to their own family-based arrangements to support their children," he is expected to say. |
| In a speech to the Children and Young People's Conference in London the Lib Dem minister will add that the government is spending "up to £20m" in projects to help estranged parents "communicate better, work together and support their children." | In a speech to the Children and Young People's Conference in London the Lib Dem minister will add that the government is spending "up to £20m" in projects to help estranged parents "communicate better, work together and support their children." |
| A work and pensions spokesman added: "This is not so much a question of the success of failure of the CSA, it's more about parents taking financial responsibility for their children more seriously." | A work and pensions spokesman added: "This is not so much a question of the success of failure of the CSA, it's more about parents taking financial responsibility for their children more seriously." |
| He said more than half of parents involved with the CSA said they would like to come to their own arrangements. | He said more than half of parents involved with the CSA said they would like to come to their own arrangements. |