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<p>We have interpreted the expiring of a Child Maintenance Service order to mean the
ending of Child Maintenance liability on a Child Support Agency (CSA) case as part
of our case closure process.</p><p> </p><p>The process to end the liabilities (stop
accruing maintenance) in all Child Support Agency cases began in 2014. The Case closure
process involves sending the customer 3 letters over the case closure journey to instigate,
remind and confirm liability is ending, enabling the customer to make alternate arrangements
over the period. .</p><p> </p><p>At end of liability, clients are told that their
Child Support Agency child maintenance arrangement has ended. The Non Resident Parent
will be told when to make a final maintenance payment and to keep paying any arrears.
The Child Support Agency (CSA) will continue to collect and pay arrears payments that
are made prior to the case fully closing - but regular maintenance collections and
payments will stop after a 6 month fixed period.</p><p> </p><p>When liability has
ended the case enters “arrears cleanse”. The purpose of this period (which may take
up to a further 6 months) is to examine the debt balances on the case to address any
anomalies and so calculate a “stable” arrears figure. This involves reviewing any
suspended and deferred debt. It includes the write off of debt in circumstances covered
by existing debt write off powers.</p><p> </p><p>A case can only close once all arrears
have been cleared or collected. For those cases where the child maintenance liability
ended on or after 1<sup>st</sup> April 2014 as part of this process the average length
of time for the Department to close a case was 27 weeks, this is based on data up
31<sup>st</sup> September 2017. The department aims to end liability on all Child
Support Agency cases by 31 December 2018.</p><p> </p><p>In terms of targets, the department
have a clear timeline for ending liability for individual cases 6 months after selection
but there time taken to actually close the case will be dependant on the arrears position
and the amount of work outstanding.. Whilst there are no specific targets for the
process of closing cases once liability has ended, for most cases this should be around
6 months, and the exact time will depend on case circumstances. This relates to Child
Support Agency cases only, and only those cases that are subject to the case closure
programme. We have no specific closure data for Child Maintenance Service (CMS) cases,
and they are not part of the case closure programme.</p>
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