Did Noel Shanahan and his colleagues ever consider that the policy of inflating arrears may have caused catastrophic outcomes? Do these senior civil servants undertake any impact studies? We can’t find any. But what we have discovered is an ever growing list of dead people. There are many many people who have and continue to receive inflated demands that cause so much stress it can send them over the edge. Arrears inflation, maladministration and errors on a major scale have major impacts on those receiving the letters and horribly timed SMS messages. All designed to stress people into compliance. But to comply with what? False arrears? False and erroneous calculations? And remember it effects everyone using this service. Men. Women. And ask a child who has lost a parent whether or not losing a parent has improved their life? These are real people. Not statistics to be played with in Select Committees when answering tough questions.
Essentially it was a number that was brought up to say to the nonresident parent, “This is how much you will have to pay,” and used as a bit of a lever when they would not give us their pay and information, which we have to ask for. So actually it was inflated and it seems to be inflated by about 300%. When they did not pay, all those numbers have gone into the arrears.
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