Deduction From Earnings Order: How Much Can the CMS Take?

Part of: Child Maintenance Lawyer

A deduction from earnings order (DEO) tells a paying parent’s employer to take child maintenance straight out of their pay. The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) makes it under section 31 of the Child Support Act 1991. It can collect missed payments as well as the regular amount, and the employer has to comply.

Most people arrive here because of a letter or a payslip. Paying parents will find how much an order can take, what an employer must do and how to challenge it. Parents waiting for maintenance will find when the CMS can use one and how to get it moving. For the wider case, see our child maintenance lawyer page. Our guide to the CSA and the CMS explains what replaced the old agency.

A first deduction on your payslip, or still waiting for one that never comes? You can book a free initial consultation with one of our family law specialists before you decide what to do.

What is a deduction from earnings order?

It is a CMS order telling an employer to take maintenance from a parent’s pay and send it to the CMS. The money leaves at source, before the parent ever receives it.

The order names the employer and takes effect from a date it states. It can cover arrears, future payments or both (s.31(3) to (5)). The CMS must send a copy to the employer and to the parent who pays. You will sometimes see it called a deduction of earnings order, which means the same thing.

It only reaches earnings. The regulations count wages, salary, fees, bonus, commission and overtime (reg. 8(3)). A works pension and statutory sick pay count too. The list leaves out benefits, a disability pension and armed forces pay (reg. 8(4)). GOV.UK adds that an employer cannot use statutory maternity, paternity, adoption or redundancy pay either. If you run your own company, salary through payroll counts, but dividends are not on the list. Our guide to child maintenance for company directors explains how the CMS treats them.

When does the CMS use a DEO?

The CMS uses one when an employed parent misses payments, pays late or pays less than the calculation says. It can also be the way that parent pays from the start, if they choose it (GOV.UK).

A DEO is one of the payment methods the CMS can set (reg. 3(1)). In practice it goes with Collect and Pay, where the CMS takes the money and passes it on. On Direct Pay the parents handle payments between themselves. If payments fall short, the CMS can switch the case to Collect and Pay first (GOV.UK).

Making the order costs the paying parent a £50 enforcement fee (Child Support Fees Regulations 2014, reg. 10). The CMS may waive it where that parent chose to pay this way (reg. 12(5)). Collect and Pay also carries collection fees (reg. 7). The paying parent pays 20% on top, and the receiving parent loses 4%.

Can you keep it from your employer?

Usually not. The CMS must not choose a DEO as your way of paying if there is good reason not to (reg. 3(3)). However, wanting to keep the maintenance from your employer is not a good reason (reg. 3(6)). What counts is whether the order would reveal who a child’s parent is (reg. 3(4)). The CMS also asks how that would affect your job or your relationships. For example, a relative of either parent might handle the order at the same employer (reg. 3(5)).

If the CMS decides there is no good reason, you can appeal that decision to the magistrates’ court within 28 days (reg. 22(2A) and (3A)). This protection covers an order set as your way of paying. It does not stop the CMS making one after missed payments (reg. 3(8)).

How much can a deduction from earnings order take from your pay?

Each pay day the employer takes the amount in the order, provided you keep 60% of your net earnings. If the full amount would cut into that 60%, the employer takes only what sits above it, and the rest carries forward.

Those rules come from regulation 12, and the 60% figure, called the protected earnings proportion, from regulation 11(2). Net earnings here means pay after income tax, Class 1 National Insurance and pension contributions (reg. 8(5)). The regulation lists only those three. A student loan repayment, for example, does not reduce the figure.

The order sets a rate to match your pay cycle: weekly, fortnightly, four-weekly or monthly (reg. 10). If your employer pays you on some other cycle, the CMS must discharge the order instead.

Say your net earnings for the month are £2,000 and the order asks for £900, because it includes arrears. The protected 60% is £1,200, so the employer can take £800 at most. It takes £800, and the other £100 joins next month’s deduction, which faces the same 60% line (reg. 12(4)).

The employer may also keep up to £1 a time for admin costs, even below the 60% line (reg. 12(6)). That £1 must not take your pay below the National Minimum Wage (GOV.UK).

What does an employer have to do?

An employer must comply once a copy of the order reaches it, with 7 days’ grace (s.31(7)). After that it deducts every pay day, tells the employee each time and pays the CMS.

• It tells the employee in writing what it deducted, including any £1 admin charge (reg. 13).
• It pays the money to the CMS by the 19th of the month after the deduction (reg. 14).
• It writes to the CMS within 10 days if the person leaves, or never worked there (reg. 16).
• If it learns of an existing order for an employee, it has 7 days to tell the CMS (reg. 16(3)).

Failing to comply is a criminal offence with a fine (s.32(8) and (11)). An employer that took all reasonable steps has a defence. GOV.UK warns employers of a £500 fine for each missed payment and up to £1,000 for withholding information. In England and Wales a DEO also comes before other orders against pay. The exception is a priority attachment of earnings order (GOV.UK).

What happens to a DEO when you change jobs?

The order lapses when you leave that employer, from the pay day on or after your last day. The maintenance is still due, though, and the CMS can revive the same order against your next employer (reg. 21).

Once an order has been made, tell the CMS in writing within 7 days whenever you leave or start a job. If you start one, include your new employer’s name and address and what you expect to earn (reg. 15). The duty carries on after the order lapses (reg. 21(3)), and missing it is an offence in itself (reg. 25). If you change employer and the CMS makes a fresh order, it may waive the £50 fee (fees reg. 12(3)).

Can you challenge a deduction from earnings order?

Yes. You can appeal to the magistrates’ court within 28 days of the matter you object to, or 56 days if you live outside the UK. Once an order is made, the grounds are that it is defective, or that the money it targets is not earnings (reg. 22).

An order is defective if a flaw in its contents makes it impracticable for the employer to follow (reg. 8(1)). If the appeal succeeds, the court can quash the order or say which payments are not earnings. The CMS may then waive the £50 fee (fees reg. 12(4)).

What if the figure on the order is wrong?

Take it back to the CMS, because the magistrates’ court cannot look at the maintenance calculation behind the order (s.32(6)). The CMS may, for example, have used an income you no longer earn. Ask for a mandatory reconsideration within 30 days of the date on the decision letter (GOV.UK). After that, you can appeal to a tribunal. Our guide to the child maintenance tribunal explains that route.

You can also ask the CMS to look at the order itself. It must review the order when the calculation changes or you clear the arrears (reg. 17). It can also discharge an order that is defective, or where another way of collecting would work better (reg. 20).

What if there is no employer to send it to?

Then the CMS turns to the paying parent’s bank account or to the courts. It can take regular deductions or a lump sum from an account. It can also ask a magistrates’ court for a liability order (s.33).

A regular deduction order works like a DEO aimed at a bank or building society (s.32A). It too can collect arrears, future payments or both. A liability order is the next step. The CMS can apply for one when an order to an employer would not work, for instance for a self-employed parent. It can also apply when such an order has failed. Once the court grants a liability order, the CMS can go further, for example by seizing property (GOV.UK).

Fees from the Child Support Fees Regulations 2014, reg. 10. Our guide to CMS vs court order compares these powers with those of the family court.

What can the parent owed maintenance do?

Ask the CMS to move your case to Collect and Pay, because it cannot act while you are on Direct Pay. Once it collects the money, it acts on a missed or short payment without you having to ask (GOV.UK).

You can make the switch in your online account. Meanwhile, keep a record of what arrives and when. If a payment goes missing, the CMS may ask for a bank statement (GOV.UK). You cannot apply for a DEO yourself, because the power belongs to the CMS alone (s.31(2)). The CMS also might not tell you which steps it is taking (GOV.UK). Collect and Pay costs you 4% of each payment you receive.

Sometimes the order works but the amount still looks too low. If you think the CMS has missed some of the other parent’s income, ask for a variation (GOV.UK). Our child maintenance calculator shows how the CMS works out the figure.

Deduction from earnings order pay-day checker

Three answers show which order can reach the paying parent’s income. For wages, they also show how one pay day splits. This page does not save or send anything you enter.

Deduction from earnings order: frequently asked questions

General information about the law in England and Wales, not advice on your circumstances.