Attempts to reform the Child Support Agency (CSA) in parallel with the introduction of a complex IT system were overambitious, the National Audit Office (NAO) has concluded.

The damning report published by the NAO last week lists a catalogue of problems.

‘From design to delivery and operation, the programme to reform the Agency has been beset with problems which the Department for Work and Pensions, the agency and its IT supplier EDS have struggled to deal with,’ said NAO head John Bourn.

There have been technical problems since the system went live in 2003.

The NAO also criticises the CSA, saying the agency lacked internal expertise, pursued an inappropriate contracting strategy, and was over-optimistic.

‘The reform programme was overambitious and introduction of such a complex IT system was at the upper end of what was achievable,’ says the report.

The CSA still has a backlog of 300,000 cases. Each application takes an average of nine months to clear.

But the problems are more than just the technology.

‘With hindsight, the agency was never structured in a way that would enable the policy to be delivered cost-effectively,’ says the NAO report.

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