If a non-resident parent doesn't tell us that they're going to miss making a payment or that they are not going to pay the right amount, we can take action to make sure they do pay. If they are paying through us, we can take action immediately. If both parents agreed that the non-resident parent would pay the parent with care direct after they made an application to us, and this arrangement fails, the parent with care can contact us and ask us to take action.
We will try to get in touch with the non-resident parent by phone first. If we cannot contact them by phone, we will write to them to warn that we can start enforcement action unless they:
- make an agreement to pay the full amount of the child maintenance they have missed
- keep to the agreement they have already made.
The non-resident parent has one week to do this. If they do not contact us and agree to pay what they owe, we can start enforcement action.
If the non-resident parent doesn't respond to this warning and they are working for, or getting a pension from, an employer, our first step is to take child maintenance from their earnings or their pension.
We will do this through a deduction from earnings order. We will tell the non-resident parent's employer how much to take from their earnings or pension. Their employer must take this amount and pass it to us on their behalf. If they fail to do this without good reason, we can take the employer to court.
The non-resident parent's employer may also take an extra amount of up to £1 from their earnings every time they have to take money from their earnings. This is to help with the employer's administration costs.
If an employer cannot take the full amount direct from the non-resident parent's earnings or pension (for example, because they haven't earned enough in a particular week) they will take what they can. However, we will tell them to leave the non-resident parent a certain amount to pay for their living costs. If the non-resident parent's income regularly falls below this level they should tell us because we may need to change the amount of child maintenance they must pay.
If the non-resident parent doesn't make other arrangements to pay, we can take them to court. Taking court action is costly and the non-resident parent may have to pay the court costs as well as the child maintenance they owe. This is the same if the non-resident parent is self-employed.
If the non-resident parent is in Her Majesty's Armed Forces and they have failed to make payments, we will send a request to the Ministry of Defence to take the amount of child maintenance they owe from their wages.
If a non-resident parent gets benefits, a State pension or a War Pension, we will usually take the amount owed direct from their benefit or pension.
If we have told an employer to take child maintenance from a non-resident parent's earnings and they stop working for that employer, the non-resident parent must tell us. They must also tell us:
- the name and address of their new employer, if they have one
- the amount they expect to earn, and
- their payroll or employee number, if they have one.
It is a criminal offence if they do not tell us within one week from the date these changes start from.
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