Deductions from Earnings Orders (DEOs)

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Child maintenance schemes are the responsibility of the Child Maintenance Service. Part of the responsibilities of the service is to ensure that child maintenance is deducted by employers from a non-resident parent's earnings. These deductions are known as Deductions from Earnings Orders (DEOs).

There are three type of DEO schemes, issued separately in 1993, 2003 and 2012. All schemes are valid but if an employee has a new DEO applied it will be under the 2012 scheme.These are maintained on the Payroll - Processing - Attachment Orders form.

The Child Maintenance Service will inform you what the normal deduction should be for each employee. As it will not know an employee's pay frequency, the deduction will be provided for weekly, two-weekly, four-weekly and monthly deductions. You will then apply the relevant deduction for the employee's pay frequency.

DEOs are maintained on the Payroll - Processing - Attachment Orders form for each affected employee.

2012 Deductions from Earnings Orders

The 2012 DEO is calculated differently to the 1993 and 2003 DEOs. For this DEO a non-resident parent's protected earnings will be 60% of their attachable earnings. Protected earnings is the proportion of the employee's net pay that cannot be included in the calculation of the child maintenance deduction. This means that, under this scheme, the employee's take-home pay will be at least 60% of their actual net earnings. The actual protected earnings will therefore change if the non-resident parent's attachable earnings changes from one pay period to the next.

If the order cannot be paid in full, the reason for the underpayment will be updated on the Payroll - Processing - Attachment Orders form attached to the employee's record, and included on the DEO Payment Schedule Report and the file that is designed to be uploaded to the self-service web site hosted by the Child Maintenance Service. The shortfall will not be added to the following period's deduction but it will be assessed by the Child Maintenance Service and rescheduled for payment if necessary.

Example 1 - a full DEO payment is deducted ...

Example 2 - a part DEO payment is deducted ...

Permitted Reasons for Underpayment of DEOs

If a full DEO payment cannot be made the employee record is updated by the Payroll - Calculation command with the reason for the underpayment. However, you can prevent this by selecting the Override box on the attachment order record.

If the reason is updated automatically you should check that it is correct before submitting the DEO Payment Schedule Report to the Child Maintenance Service.

Reason

Description

Left employment

The employee has left this period.

SSP

The employee is being paid Statutory Sick Pay in this period and the deduction cannot be made in full.

SMP

The employee is being paid Statutory Maternity Pay in this period and the deduction cannot be made in full.

SPP

The employee is being paid Statutory Paternity Pay in this period and the deduction cannot be made in full.

Protected Earnings

The employee has protected earnings in this period and the deduction cannot be made in full.

Change of Income

The employee had a change of income in this period.

Important: You need to set this manually; it cannot be set automatically by the Calculation command.

Deceased

The employee died in this period.

SAP

The employee is being paid Statutory Adoption Pay in this period and the deduction cannot be made in full.

ASPP

The employee is being paid Additional Statutory Paternity Pay in this period and the deduction cannot be made in full.

This reason must also be used for employees receiving Shared Parental Pay.

Multiple Reasons

There are two or more reasons for the underpayment.

Redundancy

The employee was made redundant in this period.

1993 and 2003 Deductions from Earnings Orders

There are also two other types of child maintenance schemes, one was introduced in 1993, the other in 2003. These child maintenance schemes will be used alongside the 2012 scheme. Non-resident parents can continue to pay into 1993 and 2003 schemes. If a non-resident parent joins the 2012 scheme, any existing payments into the 1993 or 2003 scheme will stop. Non-resident parents who already pay into the older schemes can apply for them to be stopped and reassessed for eligibility for the new scheme. Warnings will be displayed after the calculation of a 2012 DEO if the non-resident parent also has active 1993 or 2003 DEOs on their employee record.

DEO Payment Schedule Report

The DEO payment schedule report, which is submitted by employers to the Child Maintenance Service for each pay period when DEOs are deducted, can be saved as a file that can be uploaded to the service's self-service web site. It can also be printed.

For more information about the new scheme, go to www.childmaintenance.org.