Questions and answers

Deduction from earnings orders that are issued with a National Insurance number are for cases that have been assessed under the new rules since 3rd March 2003. Until all the existing cases are transferred over to the new scheme, we will be operating two different schemes. Cases assessed under the old rules will continue to quote reference numbers on the orders. As an employer you may therefore receive deduction from earnings orders with either reference numbers or national insurance numbers.

Sometimes a non resident parent has more than one case and is paying maintenance for children by different parents with care. If they have multiple cases calculated under the new rules there will only ever be one deduction from earnings order which will show the National Insurance number. You will make one payment to the Division and we will split the payment between the relevant children once received

For multiple cases under the old rules you may receive more than one deduction from earnings order which will show the 10-digit reference number; you will need to make a payment for each order you hold for each employee. If your payroll is already set up with payment schedules these may need to be changed to ensure the correct deductions are made.

There is more information about payment schedules in the leaflet CSL313 (NI) (PDF 228KB)

The employer should always wait until advised by the  Child Maintenance and Enforcement Division about the amount to take from the non-resident parent's wages. This is because we sometimes take time between making a calculation and advising of a collection schedule. If the employer deducts what is advised on the non-resident parent's notification, it is possible the wrong amount may be deducted. This in turn will lead to further contact between Child Maintenance and Enforcement Division and employers, which could have been avoided.

A reference number is a unique identifier, which is individual to a client of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Division.

The correct reference number should be used when sending payments or any correspondence to the Division.

We are currently operating two schemes, one for cases assessed under the old rules pre March 2003 and one for new rules cases. Old rules cases are identified by a reference number and new rules cases by a National insurance number

This ensures that as soon as payments and correspondence are sent to the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Division, they can be automatically actioned and processed, which means that the child maintenance is paid out to the parent with care as soon as possible. Quoting incorrect reference numbers delays this, as we have to spend time manually matching the payments and clients together.

A simple rule is to quote the most recent number highlighted in the last letter we sent to you.

If an employee leaves you must inform the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Division within 10 days. Please ring or write to the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Division office which sent you the deduction from earnings order.

The Agency must send out the deduction from earnings order with a monetary amount (for protected earnings). If you receive an order which does not contain a monetary amount, you should contact the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Division office who sent you the order, and ask them to send you a revised order. You should return the incorrect order to the originating Child Maintenance and Enforcement Division office.