Organisation: UK Government

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Analysis and commentary by Echo Research.

For 13 long years, the Child Support Agency stood beleagued by constant cries of anxiety from the very people it was set up to assist. It saw a battery of IT & telecoms revisionism and Government reviews. Last week, it stood three billion pounds in debt with a backlog of 330,000 cases. There was widespread consensus over the CSA's lamentable nature: "shambolic"said Liberal Democrat spokesperson David Laws (Times, 10/2), "chaotic"(Mirror, 9/2) and "a basket case"(Herald Editorial, 10/2) .
Few, however, would have envied the role of Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton to read out the organisation's last rites. There was quiet applause, as Mr Hutton outlined the intention to " redesign the whole notion of child support"(Reuters, 9/2), with an interim emergency package to "stabilise and improve"(Channel4.com, 9/2) the CSA over the short term. Mr Hutton left little doubt over the key objectives: improved productivity, enforcement and debt collection, or alternatively stated "There will be no hiding place for dodgy deadbeat dads"(JH, The Scotsman, 9/2).

The Opposition parties still grumbled over the Government's failure to act sooner, with accusations that the reform amounted to " more sticking plaster and yet another review"(David Laws, Inside Public, 9/2).