The Sorting Out Separation web app that cost the DoWP around £417,500 has proven to be something of a failure. It was intended to be a key source of information for separated and separating parents, providing external sources of information to help make the process easier.
Unfortunately, a recent report has revealed that in 14 months of use only 9,132 visitors have gone beyond the home page of the app to find any of the information. The target was 260,000 visitors. A re-evaluation and a redesign has not helped with the app’s success rate.
To make matters worse the app was intended to assist parents in sorting out their own child maintenance, as the government makes a major overhaul, closing one million child support agency cases over the next 3 years.
The child support changes have already drawn much criticism from many different parties and it would appear from the latest report on the Sorting Out Separation App that the government will come up against even more problems as parents fail to access the crucial information that they need to separate fairly and legally and without assistance from legal aid or from the Child Support Agency.