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Summary of Selected Cases
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SECURITY
Case No. C.548/99
Child Support Agency: delays in establishing the effective date for a multiple assessment unit case
The Ombudsman upheld Ms Y's complaint that the Child Support Agency (CSA) had delayed assessing and collecting child support maintenance from the non-resident parent and had delayed their consideration of her request for a compensatory payment. As a defect in the legislation means that the effective date from which a non-resident parent becomes liable to pay maintenance in a multiple assessment unit case is governed by the date on which the assessment is made, the Ombudsman had to accept that CSA could not have backdated Ms Y's entitlement to receive maintenance. Nevertheless, he criticised CSA's delays both in dealing with Ms Y's case and in rectifying the policy implications of the legislative defect. CSA agreed to compensate Ms Y for their delays by making her an ex gratia payment of £5,099.62 to cover the maintenance which she had forgone from six months after she had submitted her maintenance application form to the day before the effective date, along with £617.79 to compensate her for the loss of use of that money and £100 in consolation for the gross inconvenience caused to her.
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