Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the effect on children of a Child Maintenance Service deduction of earning requests being declined by the Ministry of Defence Council or an authorised officer.

The Child Maintenance Group has a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Defence that supports the operation of Deduction from Earnings Requests. However, the final decision on whether to implement the deduction from earnings request and at what rate ultimately rests with HM Paymaster. Where we are unable to deduct child maintenance directly from salaries, we will look to enforce payment directly from a paying parent’s bank account.

Where a paying parent fails to pay on time or in full, the Child Maintenance Service has a wide range of strong enforcement powers including deduction from earnings orders, order for sale, removing non-paying parent's driving licences, disqualification of passports, and committal to prison.

We introduced new powers in December 2018 which allow the Child Maintenance Service to deduct child maintenance directly from a wider range of accounts, including joint and business accounts, and enable it to target complex earners via a calculation of notional income based on assets.