£4bn in child support arrears still owed by absent parents

Almost £4 billion in outstanding child support arrears is owed by absent parents, but the actual figure could be even higher, a spending watchdog has found.

The National Audit Office said there were "material errors" in the calculations of child maintenance assessments.

The watchdog's head Sir Amyas Morse qualified his audit opinions and said the figures did not give a "true and fair view" of the actual arrears.

The criticisms cover the schemes established in 1993 and 2003, which have subsequently been replaced by a separate system in 2012.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is running the older "legacy" schemes alongside the 2012 system.

The NAO found that under the older schemes, the cumulative total of outstanding arrears since the Child Support Agency was established in 1993 stood at £3.957 billion.

The money is owed by non-resident parents to the parent caring for the child or, in some cases, the secretary of state, and the arrears can only be written off in very limited circumstances.

The NAO considers these figures "do not give a true and fair view because of the level of error in the underlying case data, which is a result of both inaccurate maintenance assessments by caseworkers and incorrect processing of cases".

The auditors' best estimates of the impact of incorrect processing of cases indicate that the reported arrears at March 31 2015 were overstated by around £15.9 million and understated by around £113.7 million.

In 2014-15, the DWP received £756.6 million in child maintenance from non-resident parents under the 1993 and 2003 schemes, but the NAO estimated that errors had resulted in £4.2 million of overpayments and £6.5 million of overpayments.

Under the 2012 scheme, the department received £25.7 million in child maintenance payments in 2014-15, with errors resulting in an estimated £305,000 of overpayments and £295,000 of underpayments.

The DWP is closing cases on the 1993 and 2003 schemes, and inviting those affected to apply under the 2012 scheme rules instead.

The 2012 system was already resulting in improved levels of accuracy compared with the previous schemes at the same stage, according to the DWP.