Child Support Agency

The Child Support Agency (CSA) was a delivery arm of the Department for Work and Pensions (Child Maintenance Group) in Great Britain and the former Department for Social Development in Northern Ireland. Launched on 5 April 1993, the CSA was responsible for implementing the Child Support Act 1991 and subsequent legislation. The CSA was replaced in the long term by its successor launched in 2012, the Child Maintenance Service.

The CSA's function was twofold, encompassing calculation of how much child maintenance is due (based on current legislation and rules) and collection, enforcement and transferral of the payment from the non-resident parent to the person with care.

For the CSA to become involved in a case, their services must be requested by one of the parents. Legislation also allows children in Scotland to initiate a case against one or both non-resident parents.

The CSA cannot get involved, even upon request, in the following circumstances (except in cases where the parent with care claims Income Support or Jobseekers Allowance):

A new method of child maintenance calculation came into effect on March 3, 2003. The previous method used a "complex formula of up to 108 pieces of information", by first calculating the total child maintenance required based on the children's ages, then calculating the non-resident parents income after various allowances were subtracted, and finally working out what portion of the calculated maintenance was to be paid by the non-resident parent, based on their income.

Under the new method the basis for calculating maintenance has been simplified, with a fixed percentage of the non-resident parents net income being taken, from 15% for one child, 20% for two, and 25% for three or more. Where maintenance is calculated using the basic rate, the amount of maintenance is also reduced if the non-resident parent has children in their current family. Where this is relevant, the CSA will not take into account: 15% of their net weekly income if there is one child living with them, 20% if they are two children living with them, and 25% for three or more.

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