Make child maintenance deductions from an employee's pay

Overview

The Child Maintenance Service and the Child Support Agency (CSA) can ask you to:

• give information about your employee so they can work out the right amount of child maintenance
• set up a deduction from earnings order (DEO)
• answer enquiries from other organisations who collect payments of child maintenance on their behalf

You may also be given an attachment of earnings order (AEO) by a court.

Your legal obligations when deducting child maintenance

By law, you must:

• give information to the Child Maintenance Service or CSA, if you’re asked to
• send payments as soon as possible, but no later than the 19th day of the month following the month you made the deduction
• tell the Child Maintenance Service or CSA immediately if there are any problems with taking payments from a paying parent’s earnings
• make regular payments - if you don’t send payments and don’t explain why, you could be taken to court

You must also tell the Child Maintenance Service or CSA about a change of circumstances within 10 days, eg if:

• an employee leaves your business
• you’re asked to set up a deduction from earnings order (DEO) for someone who doesn’t work for you

Put this information in writing for the CSA. For the Child Maintenance Service, you can phone or put in writing.

Changes to child maintenance

The Child Maintenance Service was set up in 2012. It runs alongside the CSA so you may deal with either organisation depending on when your employee’s case was opened.

In most cases, arrangements started:

• before 25 November 2013 are handled by the CSA

• after 25 November 2013 are managed by the Child Maintenance Service

You can manage any of your Child Maintenance Service cases with the online service.

The CSA doesn’t have an online service.

Contact either organisation if you have any questions.

Deduction from earnings orders (DEOs)

Deduction from earnings orders (DEOs) are a way of collecting child maintenance directly from a paying parent’s earnings or pension.

When you’ll get a DEO

You’ll be sent a deduction from earnings order (DEO) if one of your employees is a paying parent who:

• chooses to pay child maintenance direct from their earnings
• doesn’t pay the correct amount of child maintenance on time
• doesn’t pay at all

The DEO will be sent to you by either the Child Maintenance Service or the Child Support Agency (CSA).

What you need to do

You must deduct the amount of child maintenance stated on the DEO from your employee’s net earnings or their pension and pay it to the Child Maintenance Service or CSA. This will include any arrears that are due.

Other court orders against your employee

You could get a DEO from the CSA and an attachment of earnings order (AEO) from a court.

Attachment of earnings orders (AEOs)

Attachment of earnings orders (AEOs) are another way of collecting child maintenance from a paying parent’s earnings or pension.

AEOs are like deduction of earnings orders but they are issued by a court, not the Child Maintenance Service or the Child Support Agency.

Scottish courts issue different orders to enforce maintenance payments. You will usually receive a current maintenance arrestment. Find out more about Scottish arrestments.

When you’ll get an AEO

You’ll get an attachment of earnings order (AEOs) if one of your employees is a paying parent who:

• doesn’t pay the correct amount of child maintenance on time
• doesn’t pay at all

What you’ll need to do

You must sign a statement that says how much your employee earns if the court asks you to.

Contact the court by letter within 7 days if you find out that a new employee has an existing order. Include details of your employee’s earnings or the average you think they’ll earn - an existing order might affect how much you have to deduct.

You won’t be fined for not taking money for the AEO if the first pay day is less than 7 days after the date you get the court order.

Make deductions from your employee’s pay

The AEO will tell you:

• how much your employee owes, unless the order is for regular maintenance
• how often you’ll have to take money - usually this will be weekly or monthly
• how much you should take each time
• the amount below which you must not make a deduction - ‘the protected earnings rate’ (PER)

Find out:

• what counts as your employee’s earnings
• how to make deductions

You’ll be told by the court in writing if the PER rate changes.

Make payments

The AEO will tell you where to make payments. Usually, this will be to the court and you can pay using the Centralised Attachment of Earnings Payments System (CAPS).

Include the name of the employee and the case number - you’ll find this on the AEO.

Change when you make deductions

You can ask the court to amend the order so you can make monthly or weekly deductions, depending on how you pay your employee.

If the AEO came from a magistrate’s court, your employee will need to ask the court to amend it.

Stop making deductions

You’ll be told by the court in a letter if you can stop making deductions because:

• the debt’s been paid in full
• the order’s been cancelled

You must:

• check the amount of the final deduction - it may be less than the usual deduction
• stop deductions as soon as possible or within 7 days of being told
• send all money deducted to CAPS

How to calculate deductions

The deduction from earnings order (DEO) or the attachment of earnings order (AEO) will show 2 rates.

Rate	What it means
Normal deduction rate (NDR)	The amount your employee owes in child maintenance. You’ll deduct this from their pay.
Protected earnings rate (PER) or protected earnings proportion (PEP)	The minimum pay you must make sure your employee takes home after all deductions have been made.

The PER applies to cases opened before 3 March 2003. The PEP applies to cases opened from 3 March 2003.

How much to deduct

You may not always be able to deduct the full NDR from your employee’s pay.

This depends on how much they have left in net earnings once you’ve taken in account their PER or PEP.

You can deduct up to £1 for administration costs.

If you can’t deduct the full NDR

You must:

• keep a record of the shortfall
• carry forward the shortfall to the next period
• send any deduction you’ve been able to make to the court, Child Maintenance Service or CSA

You then deduct the full amount of the shortfall plus the NDR owed for the next pay period. You must still leave your employee with the PER or PEP.

If the shortfall is carried forward for several weeks before being repaid, keep a record of the ongoing shortfall.

The Child Maintenance Service, CSA or court may need to review an NDR if an employee consistently can’t pay it.

If you pay your employee holiday pay in advance

You’ll have to:

• calculate your employee’s total net earnings for the pay period
• multiply the PER or PEP and the NDR by the number of weeks in the pay period
• set aside the combined PER or PEP and take off the combined NDR in the usual way

If you get more than one DEO or AEO for an employee

Sometimes a paying parent has more than one case and is paying child maintenance for children by different receiving parents.

For cases opened after 3 March 2003 there will only ever be one DEO. You make one payment to the Child Maintenance Service or CSA and it gets split later.

For cases opened before 3 March 2003 you might get more than one DEO and need to make a payment for each.

You’ll have to pay AEOs in the order of the date of issue, so you might have to finish deducting payments for one before another.

AEOs for maintenance have to be paid before AEOs for civil debts.

What counts as earnings

A deduction from earnings order (DEO) or an attachment of earnings order (AEO) can only be made from the following earnings:

• wages, fees, bonus, commission, overtime pay or any payments on top of wages
• private or occupational pensions and compensation payments
• Statutory Sick Pay
• contractual sick pay
• contractual maternity pay
• contractual paternity pay
• contractual adoption pay
• contractual redundancy pay

What doesn’t count as earnings

Your employee can’t pay child maintenance by DEO or AEO if their only earnings are in the following categories:

• amounts paid by a public department of the government of Northern Ireland or any country outside the UK
• any social security pension, allowance or benefit
• tax credits
• any pension or allowance paid for disability
• guaranteed minimum pension within the Social Security Pensions Act 1975
• Statutory Maternity Pay
• Statutory Paternity Pay
• Statutory Adoption Pay
• Statutory Redundancy Pay

Make DEO payments

You can make DEO payments to the Child Maintenance Service or Child Support Agency (CSA) by using the Banks Automated Clearing System (BACS).

For Child Maintenance Service cases, you can manage any of your payments with the online service. You should send a single bulk BACS payment for all the employees you make a deduction from. You’ll get a monthly schedule.

For CSA cases, download and fill in the ‘deduction from earnings order payments schedule’ form and send it, with payment, to the address on the form. There’s no online service for the CSA.

You can also pay by other methods:

• internet banking
• telephone banking
• cheque

If you have any questions, contact the service dealing with your case.

When to pay

You should send a payment to the Child Maintenance Service or CSA so it gets there no later than the 19th day of the month following the month that you took it.

You and your employee will be sent a letter every year to remind you how much must be paid and when.

Deductions for administrative costs

You can take up to £1 towards administrative costs for each deduction, on top of the amount asked for on the DEO. You can take it even if it reduces your employee’s income below the protected earnings proportion or protected earnings rate.

Inform your employee

You must inform your employee in writing about each deduction when they are given their pay statement. Include the amount (if any) you deduct towards your expenses.

If pay statements are not usually given, you should inform your employee in writing. You should do this no later than the employee’s pay day after the deduction was made.

If you pay the wrong amount

Contact the Child Maintenance Service or CSA if you find a mistake in the amount you’ve paid.

Change of circumstances for DEOs

Tell the Child Maintenance Service or Child Support Agency (CSA) if your employee’s circumstances change.

For Child Maintenance Service cases, use the online service.

Or contact the Child Maintenance Service employer helpline.

For Child Support Agency (CSA) cases, contact the Child Support Agency employer helpline.

If your business stops trading, or if your employee leaves your employment, you must tell the service dealing with the case within 10 days.

You should also tell them if your employee changes their hours.

You and your employee will be sent a revised deduction from earnings order (DEO).

If the Child Maintenance Service or CSA cancels a DEO

They will write to you and your employee to tell you the DEO has been cancelled. They will ask you to stop taking deductions from the date of the letter.

If you don't help with DEOs or AEOs

If you’ve got a deduction from earnings order (DEO) it’s an offence to:

• not provide information when it’s required
• make a false statement or representation
• knowingly provide false information
• delay or obstruct an inspector on purpose
• refuse or fail to answer any questions or supply any information or to produce any document when it’s asked for

The Child Maintenance Service and the Child Support Agency (CSA) sometimes sends inspectors to interview ‘paying parents’ at work. You must let them interview your employee.

The ‘paying parent’ is the parent who doesn’t have main day-to-day care of the child.