Deduction from earnings orders
Introduction
Our main aim is to get regular child maintenance payments . This means that we need to collect money that is owed by the non-resident parent (parents who don’t have day to day care of the child) and get it to the parent who provides most of the child’s care.
A deduction from earnings order is a secure way to regularly collect child maintenance. We have designed deduction from earnings orders to work in a similar way to attachment of earnings orders which are used to collect debts such as fines. As an employer you may already be familiar with these.
Although the decision to apply a deduction from earnings order is taken by us and not the courts you would be committing an offence under Article 32(8) of the Child Support (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 if you do not comply with a deduction from earnings order. This could lead to a prosecution and a fine.
Deduction from earnings orders may be requested by the non-resident parent (your employee) as a way of paying the child maintenance they owe, or by the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Division if other methods of collecting child maintenance have failed.
When we send you a deduction from earnings order for one of your employees please give it to the person who organises the payment of wages or pensions in your organisation. You must deduct the amount shown on the order. The amount will include the regular child maintenance amount and any arrears that may be due. If one of your employees has more than one deduction from earnings order applying to them, deductions should be taken in date order.
Once you have sent us the money you have deducted and it has been cleared through our bank, we will pass it on to the parent or person who cares for the child. It is very important that we receive the money quickly as a delay could cause hardship to the children who are entitled to it.
Forms
If you maintain payroll software
|
