The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Agency 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.

Internal management estimates show that when the case involves legal action, the cost to the public purse can jump significantly - by as much as 50%. A ‘difficult’ case in the North West involving years of enforcement against a determinedly resistant parent cost the taxpayer around £40,000.

The wealthy businessman had avoided paying regular child maintenance for his two sons for more than 16 years. During a marathon legal battle the Agency was forced to deploy nearly all of the legal enforcement tools available to it including liability orders, third party debt orders and a charging order imposed on his home. In the end an order for the sale of the property finally compelled him to make a payment of £70,000.

None of the estimated costs in these examples include the added burden of the CSA’s inefficient computer systems, which are due to be replaced over the next few years.