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Service levels and client charter

We aim to be professional and responsive, helpful and courteous in all our dealings with clients. We have set minimum standards of service which we aim to meet in each of our main business areas. These standards are set out here. If we do not reach these standards, we will do our best to keep you informed and explain what is happening.

Our values

The Agency seeks to demonstrate the Department's values in the following ways:

  • Achieving the best
    We will:
    • understand and respond to the needs of our clients and listen to their concerns
    • set service standards covering key areas of our business and deliver consistently
    • deliver an efficient, professional and sensitive service
    • continuously improve our performance by learning from our successes and our mistakes
    • use our resources efficiently.
  • Making a difference
    We will:
    • ensure that children, whose parents do not live together, are financially supported by taking action as soon as we can to get maintenance to those children
    • support each other to work well.
  • Respecting people
    We will:
    • understand, respond to and invest in the needs of our people
    • treat our clients and each other with respect
    • value the ideas of others
    • communicate clearly.
  • Looking outwards
    We will:
    • seek and welcome opportunities to work with partners in the public, voluntary and private sectors
    • benchmark ourselves with the standards achieved by others.

What you can expect from us

First contact

  • Within four weeks - if the parent with care can give us contact details for the non-resident parent, we will start gathering information from the non-resident parent within four weeks of getting the application
  • Within 12 weeks - we aim to make an accurate decision about the application within 12 weeks. In some cases this may take as long as 26 weeks (for example, if we do not have the right contact details for the non-resident parent). In this situation we will try to track the non-resident parent down as quickly as we can, but it might take us longer to process applications like these.

Payments

  • Within six weeks - in cases where we handle payments of child maintenance, we aim to get the first payment to the parent with care within six weeks of agreeing payments with the non-resident parent
  • Within four months - if the non-resident parent has a job but fails or refuses to pay, we will try to get money straight from their wages through a 'deduction from earnings order'. We aim to do this within four months of us first telling them how much they have to pay. If the non-resident parent has still not paid four months after we agreed the payment with them, we will pass the case to a special enforcement team. They will take further action
  • Within one week - we will make child maintenance payments to parents with care within one week of getting the money from the non-resident parent.

Enforcement

If we have passed a case to our specialist enforcement team and we need to take action through the courts, our first step will be to get a 'liability order' from the magistrates' court (in England and Wales) or the sheriff court (in Scotland). A liability order is legal proof that there is a debt to be paid. It allows us to take further action to get the money owed.

We will then use bailiffs or other action through the courts to get the money that is owed.

If the debt is still not paid, we can apply to the courts for the non-resident parent to be sent to prison. We can also ask for the non-resident parent's driving licence to be taken away, or to stop them from getting one.

Response times

  • Within one minute - we aim to answer phone calls within one minute
  • Within three weeks - we aim to reply to letters, and either solve your complaint, or agree with you the next steps we will take, within three weeks.

Complaints

If you are not happy about the service you have received from us you can make a complaint. To make a complaint you should first phone or write to the team dealing with your case, or the team manager. You can find their contact details on any letter they have sent you.

If you feel that the issues raised in your complaint have not been settled to your satisfaction by the people dealing with your case, you should contact the Complaints Resolution Team at the office that is dealing with your application.

You can read more about the complaints process here.

If you think we have made the wrong decision

If you do not agree with a decision we have made about how much child maintenance should be paid you can ask us to look at the matter again. You can also ask us to explain how we made the decision. Please contact the office you have been dealing with within a month of getting the letter telling you how much child maintenance should be paid.

You can read about the appeals process here.

What you can do to help

You can help us deal with your case quickly and accurately by giving us all the information we need. When you contact us:

  • tell us your National Insurance number and your CSA reference number (if you have one),
  • make sure the information you give us is accurate and up to date, and
  • if we need any more information, try to give it to us a quickly as possible.

If you are the non-resident parent and pay child maintenance for your children, you should:

  • make sure you pay the full amount on time, and
  • let us know if you cannot pay or if something happens which might affect how much child maintenance you pay.

If you have problems paying the child maintenance you owe, let us know straight away so we can talk to you about other ways you can pay.

You can read the full service standards you can expect from us in our client charter. PDF

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