Alimony and Child Support Payments Service (Secal) – Efficient Processing of Applications and Recovery of Claims

In its report to the Federal Parliament, the Court of Audit examines how the Alimony and Child Support Payments Service is functioning. Since its creation in 2004 until August 2018, the Secal has been processing about 65,000 requests. In August 2018, nearly 24,000 handling and recovery procedures were still in progress. As of 31 December 2018, the cumulative claims recovery rate amounted to 29.25%. In 2018, the Secal paid 29.9 million euros advances of allowances for 18,543 children. Despite the legislative and organisational measures that have been taken since 2004, there are still shortcomings as regards the processing of applications, the recovery of claims, the management of payments, the IT tools as well as the follow-up and supervision of the Secal’s missions.