About this guidance

This guidance is for all paying parents who have a Collect & Pay arrangement with the Child Maintenance Service. It explains how you can make child maintenance payments, and what happens if you do not make a payment.

Collect & Pay is when we work out an amount of child maintenance which you legally have to pay. We then collect payments from you and pass them on to the receiving parent.

Find out more about the Child Maintenance Service.

Important information

This guidance does not cover every circumstance. It only refers to the statutory child maintenance scheme provided by the Child Maintenance Service. It does not refer to any child maintenance schemes provided by the Child Support Agency.

We have done our best to make sure the leaflet is correct as of 28 October 2013, but it may not reflect changes to the law or to our procedures after this date. You may want to get independent advice before making financial decisions based on the content of this guidance.

About us

The Child Maintenance Service is the government’s statutory child maintenance service. We work out, collect and pay out child maintenance payments on behalf of some separated parents in England, Wales and Scotland.

Our role is to make sure that parents who live apart from their children contribute towards their children’s upkeep by paying child maintenance.

What is child maintenance?

Child maintenance is regular, reliable financial support that helps towards a child’s everyday living costs.

In most cases, the parent who does not have the main day-to-day care of the child pays child maintenance to the parent who does have the main day-to-day care. In child support law the parent who receives child maintenance is known as the ‘parent with care’ - we call them the ‘receiving parent’ – and the parent who pays child maintenance is known as the ‘non-resident parent’ – we call them the ‘paying parent’. In some cases, the receiving person can be a grandparent or guardian.

If they live in Scotland, a child aged 12 to 19 and in full-time, non-advanced education or training can apply for child maintenance.

Get in touch

Find out how to contact the Child Maintenance Service.

How can I make my first child maintenance payment?

When your case is first set up, we’ll ask you to make your first payment straight away. This is so that money starts being collected for your children as soon as possible.

You can make your first payment, or any other one-off payment, by debit or credit card over the phone or by signing into your online account at any time of day.

Your bank or building society may also offer an online banking service. If you’d like to make a payment this way, you’ll need to use these details:

You’ll also need to use your customer reference number as the payment reference if you make an online payment. This is a 12-digit number starting with the number 12. It will be shown as ‘your reference’ at the top of any letter we send to you.

Using Collect & Pay

Collect & Pay is when we work out an amount of child maintenance which you legally have to pay.

We then collect payments from you and pass them on to the receiving parent.

There are a number of ways we can collect payments if Collect & Pay is used.

If you’re employed

If you are employed, we’ll either ask you to pay us by Direct Debit, or agree with you that we will take the money direct from your earnings using a ‘deduction from earnings order’.

If you’re self-employed

If you are self-employed, we’ll ask you to set up a Direct Debit to pay us.

If you receive income-related benefits

If you receive income-related benefits, we’ll normally take the money direct from your benefits before you get them

When we get the payment from you, we’ll transfer the right amount to the receiving parent. We aim to do this within one week of receiving your payment. This takes into account any time needed for payments to clear through the banking system.

Paying by Direct Debit

A Direct Debit is a way of making payments automatically. You can set up a Direct Debit over the phone or using the self-service website, or you will need to fill in some forms which we can send you. We will then pass the forms to your bank or building society. If you use internet banking you may also be able to set up a Direct Debit online.

If you do not have a bank or building society account and cannot open one, you will need to talk to us about other ways of paying child maintenance.

You can cancel a Direct Debit by writing to your bank or building society. You must tell us if you do this so you can make child maintenance payments in a different way.

Paying through a deduction from earnings order

If you are employed, you can pay child maintenance direct from your earnings through a deduction from earnings order. The money is taken from your earnings before you receive them, so you don’t have to worry about missing a payment.

If you are a member of HerHis Majesty’s (HM) Armed Forces, you can also pay direct from your earnings through a ‘deduction from earnings request’, which works in a similar way.

Paying direct from your benefits

If you receive certain benefits, the child maintenance you owe will normally be taken direct from your benefit payments before they are paid to you. These benefits include:

• income-related benefits – Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance and income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• contribution-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance
• Pension Credit
• State Pension
• Incapacity Benefit
• Training Allowance
• Armed Forces Compensation Scheme Payments
• War Pension
• Bereavement Allowance

If you have a partner and they get income-related benefits or Pension Credit, we may take child maintenance from their benefit payments.

Child maintenance will be taken before the benefit is paid out, which means you or your partner will receive less benefit.

If the child maintenance cannot be taken from your benefits because other money is already being taken, or the benefit is not one of those listed above, you will need to talk to us about other ways of paying child maintenance.

How often do I need to pay child maintenance?

When your case is first set up, we’ll agree with you how often you will make payments. This is usually based on when you are paid your earnings or pension. Most payments are made:

• every week (52 payments a year), or
• every month (12 payments a year)

If child maintenance is taken from your benefits, your child maintenance payments will be made as often as your benefit is paid. This can be:

• every 2 weeks (26 payments a year), or
• every 4 weeks (13 payments a year)

You need to pay child maintenance regularly, to help cover your child or children’s everyday living costs.

How will I know when to pay?

We will write to tell you when you need to make a payment. This letter is called a ‘Payment Plan’.

What is a Payment Plan?

A Payment Plan shows how much child maintenance you need to pay and when you need to pay it.

What information will it show?

Your plan will show:

• how much you need to pay
• the number of times you need to pay it
• the date payments start
• the date they should be paid up to

Your Payment Plan usually covers all the payments which are due to be paid during a 12-month period. So you will know 12 months in advance what you need to pay and when you need to pay it.

As part of your Annual Review, we’ll send you a new Payment Plan for the next 12 months. This is when we check to make sure you are paying the right amount of child maintenance.

We’ll also send you a new plan if your child maintenance payments change for any reason – for example, if your circumstances or the details of your case change.

If you want to know more about your Payment Plan, phone or write to us.

How can I track my payments?

When you pay child maintenance through us, you can check that we have received your payments using a self-service account.

What happens if I have to pay more than one receiving parent?

If you are paying child maintenance to more than one receiving parent through the Child Maintenance Service, we work out the total amount of child maintenance you have to pay for all qualifying children and send you one Payment Plan for the total amount due.

We’ll then pass on the right amount to each receiving parent.

What happens if I give money to the receiving parent for another reason?

Sometimes a paying parent who normally pays child maintenance through us will pay money straight to, or on behalf of, a receiving parent. If you do this, you can ask us to count this payment towards the amount of child maintenance you have to pay or that you owe. In exceptional circumstances only, we may be able to count this payment as child maintenance.

We can only do this if the payment was made, with the receiving parent’s agreement, for one of the following reasons:

• to pay a mortgage or loan which is taken out to buy or pay for essential repairs or improvements to the home where the child lives, and if the mortgage or loan is secured on that home
• to pay rent or council tax for the home where the child lives
• to pay gas, water or electricity charges for the home where the child lives, or
• to make essential repairs to the heating system or fabric of the home where the child lives

If you regularly give the receiving parent money for another reason – for example, to pay bills each month – then you should think about making a family-based arrangement. This type of arrangement gives you more flexibility.

What happens if I cannot make a payment?

If you know you are going to miss a child maintenance payment or pay it late, you should tell us straight away.

If you have already missed a payment, or are behind with your payments, you can bring them up to date and pay off what you owe quickly and easily by debit or credit card over the phone, or online using your self-service account.

Your bank or building society may also offer an online banking service. If you’d like to make a payment this way, you’ll need to use these details:

You’ll also need to use your customer reference number as the payment reference if you make an online payment. This is a 12-digit number starting with the number 12. It will be shown as ‘your reference’ at the top of any letter we send to you.

What happens if I do not pay?

You are responsible for paying child maintenance in full and on time. If you have a child maintenance case with us and you don’t pay in full and on time, we’ll take action to make sure that payments are made as soon as possible.

For example, we can take your payments directly from your earnings. We can also move your case to our Child Maintenance Enforcement unit, who can apply to the courts to take further action against you. This could result in your credit rating being affected, your property being sold or a prison sentence.

A paying parent may also have to pay enforcement charges if they do not make payments on time and in full.

For example, if we have to take action to deduct child maintenance from a paying parent’s earnings, we will charge £50 for this.

Useful information

Help and information

Find out more about the Child Maintenance Service.

Other languages

If English is not your first language, you can use your own interpreter or one that we provide.