057f3528_1997_articles__s__not_necessarily_contiguous_
[Date & reference] 1997-04-07 Electronic Telegraph CSA to scrap £600m 'problem' computer By Robert Uhlig, Technology Correspondent
THE Child Support Agency's computer, blamed for bringing misery to thousands of parents because it sometimes issued demands for nonsensical payments, is to be scrapped only four years after it was built. Tenders for a new system will be issued next year, and the £600 million computer system supplied and maintained by the American company EDS will be replaced in 1999. Problems with the system began almost as soon as it was installed to recover money from absent parents. One father complained that the CSA had told him it had never heard of him even though it had previously completed an assessment on his earnings. Several suicides were blamed on the agency after the computer system issued demands for payments that parents could not meet. I also prompted calls for changes in data protection rules. In November 1994, the agency had to buy an IBM system to overcome some of the deficiencies of the EDS model. In January 1996, the DSS was criticised by a committee of MPs over the agency's system, which cost £514 million to run while collecting just £500 million. One father complained that the CSA had told him it had never heard of him even though it had previously completed an assessment on his earnings. Several suicides were blamed on the agency after the computer system issued demands for payments that parents could not meet.
1997 articles
Extracts (not necessarily contiguous)