Note for users of the quarterly summary of statistics: calculation of arrears
Updated 28 April 2021
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/child-support-agency-quarterly-summary-of-statistics-for-great-britain-background-information-and-methodology/calculation-of-arrears-note-for-users-of-the-quarterly-summary-of-statistics
We have made a small methodological change to our calculation of arrears in the November 2017 release of Child Support Agency (CSA) quarterly summary of statistics.
Issue
Arrears on a case can be divided into 2 components:
- money owed to the Parent with Care
- money owed to the Secretary of State
Previously, the total reported arrears on a case were not the sum of these 2 components but instead a single value which we held. In a small number of cases, this single value for total debt was not always the same as the sum of the 2 components
We also identified negative arrears owed to the Parent with Care and Secretary Of State were being included in the arrears segmentation table, and therefore lowering the amount of reported arrears.
Solution
The total amount of arrears on a case is now the sum of money owed to the Parent with Care and money owed to Secretary of State.
We are now also consistently treating negative arrears as zero, regardless of who the debt is owed to, be it a Parent with Care or the Secretary of State.
We have made this change because we want to align the methodology in the publication to be the same for the 2 types of arrears, and calculate the monies owed to Parents with Care and the Secretary of State in the same way.
Impact
The impact of this methodological change is a very small increase in the total amount of arrears.
For example, in June 2017, the total amount of arrears reported has now increased by £8 million as a result of this change from £3,177 million to £3,185 million. This is a change of 0.25 per cent.
Feedback
We are constantly aiming to improve our statistics, we would welcome any feedback you might have.
Statistician: Aniel Anand
Email: cm.analysis.research@dwp.gsi.gov.uk