Guidance
Understanding your child maintenance statement: a guide for paying parents
Published 1 October 2013
© Crown copyright 2013
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/child-maintenance-a-guide-to-statements-for-receiving-and-paying-parents/understanding-your-child-maintenance-statement-a-guide-for-paying-parents
Your child maintenance statement
We send you your statement every year to help you to keep track of your child maintenance payments.
Your statement only includes payments you have already made. It does not include information about payments you are due to make in the future.
You do not need to do anything when you get your statement. However, if your closing balance shows that you owe some child maintenance, you must pay what you owe. If this is the case, we will contact you separately.
A guide to your statement
You can find definitions of each of the terms used on your statement in the table below.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Statement dates | This is the period covered by the statement. So the statement will list all the child maintenance payments you made between these two dates. Payments not yet received into our bank account by the second of these dates will not be listed. |
| Case effective date | This is the date you became legally responsible to pay child maintenance for the child or children in the case who qualify to receive it. |
| Children | The names and dates of birth of the children you had to pay child maintenance for during the period of this statement are listed here. |
| Summary | This shows you what’s been happening with all your child maintenance payments during the period covered by the statement. If you use Collect & Pay, the summary will give details of the collection fees you have been charged to use the service. |
| Date | This tells you the date when an amount of child maintenance was either due or paid by you. We work out how much child maintenance you have to pay as a weekly amount. But you can pay every week or every month. The dates on your statement will show how often you made payments. |
| Opening balance | If you owed any child maintenance at the start of this statement period it will appear here. |
| Payments due for the period | The total amount of child maintenance you had to pay for this period, including costs, fees and any child maintenance that you owed from before the statement start date (arrears). |
| Total payments received from you | The total of all Collect & Pay payments you made to the Child Maintenance Service during the period covered by the statement. |
| Closing balance | Your balance amount at the end of the statement period. |
| Child maintenance due (by case) | The amount of child maintenance you had to pay on a payment date. This amount could include child maintenance that you owed from before the statement start date. If you have more than one case in your case group, there will be a separate entry on the statement for each payment for each case. |
| Payment received from you | A child maintenance payment collected from you, your employer or a third party for a Collect & Pay case. If you use Direct Pay, the description ‘Direct Pay payment’ will appear on your statement instead. |
| Method of payment | The way your child maintenance payments are collected by the Child Maintenance Service. Payment methods you could see on the statement include: - DDR (Direct Debit) - DEO (Deduction from your earnings by your employer, or a deduction order request if your employer is Her Majesty’s (HM) Armed Forces) - CHQ (Cheque) - SDO (Standing order) - BHO (Bank Giro Credit) - CRD (Debit or credit card) - DFB (Deduction from benefits) - CSH (Cash) - TPP (Third party payment – for example, payments to bailiffs in the UK or to the Enforcement of Judgments Office in Northern Ireland) - FSP (Faster payment) - CSA (Payments carried over from previous child support arrangements) If you pay child maintenance by deduction from your earnings (DEO), the date your payment was made may not be the date when your employer took the payment from your earnings. This is because your employer has until the 19th day of the next month after deducting your payment to send it to us. |
| Balance due | This is the amount of child maintenance from the statement’s opening balance that is still due at the end of the statement period. |
Explanations of other terms that may appear on your statement
These terms may appear in the ‘Summary’ section of your statement.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Collect & Pay fees balance | The total amount of collection fees for using Collect & Pay that you still owe at the end of the period covered by the statement. |
| Collect & Pay fees due for the period | The total amount of collection fees for using Collect & Pay that you had to pay during the period covered by the statement. |
| Enforcement charges balance | The amount of enforcement charges you owe at the end of the period covered by the statement. This could include charges for taking regular or lump sum amounts towards child maintenance arrears from your bank or building society account, or for setting up a liability order. |
| Total Collect & Pay fees paid | The total amount of collection fees for using Collect & Pay that you paid during the period covered by the statement. |
These terms may appear in the ‘Description’ column on your statement.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Amount written off | Unpaid child maintenance payments which you do not have to pay. We will have already written to you about this. As a reminder, the reasons for ‘writing off’ amounts of child maintenance include: - we have made a decision that you do not have to pay these amounts that you owed - the receiving parent has died and their personal representative is either unknown or has refused us permission to continue collecting child maintenance that you owed |
| Cheques returned | A cheque payment that was returned to you because it could not be processed. |
| Child maintenance adjustment | The amount of child maintenance you must pay in a Collect & Pay arrangement could change as a result of a change of circumstances. If this happens, the statement will show the original amount of child maintenance due and the adjusted amount of child maintenance as a result of the change of circumstances. |
| Closing balance – existing arrears | The amount of unpaid child maintenance in your closing balance which has built up under the Child Maintenance Service. This is child maintenance that you still owe. |
| Closing balance – previous agency arrears | The amount of unpaid child maintenance in your closing balance which built up under the Child Support Agency. This is child maintenance that you still owe. |
| Collect & Pay fee added | The 20% collection fee you had to pay on top of a child maintenance payment listed on the statement. This fee is for using the Collect & Pay service. |
| Compensation payment | The total amount of payments you received during the period covered by the statement because of a mistake or official error made by us, or a complaint made by you. |
| Direct non-scheme payment amount (Direct Pay) | A payment you made direct to the receiving parent which is not part of the agreed schedule of child maintenance payments. |
| Direct Pay amount | An amount of child maintenance we worked out you must pay direct to the receiving parent as part of a Direct Pay arrangement. |
| Direct Pay payment adjustment | The amount of child maintenance you must pay in a Direct Pay arrangement could change as a result of a change of circumstances. If this happens, the statement will show the original amount of child maintenance due and the adjusted amount of child maintenance as a result of the change of circumstances. |
| Direct Pay payment | A child maintenance payment paid direct to the receiving parent as part of a Direct Pay arrangement. |
| DNA costs | The cost of a DNA test when you have disputed that you are the parent of a child. |
| Enforcement costs amount | This shows any costs for enforcement action we have taken against you. |
| Interest | In some circumstances, we may have added interest to the amount you must pay. If this applies to you this figure will appear on your statement. |
| Outstanding balance | This will include all outstanding amounts owed to the Child Maintenance Service and if necessary, the Child Support Agency. These could be for child maintenance, child maintenance you owed at the statement start date, costs, interest, fees or money owed due to overpayments. |
| Payment from admin account | A payment made to you from the Child Maintenance Service for administration reasons. |
| Payment from suspense account | A payment you made which was at first held in our account because information about the payment was missing or inaccurate. |
| Pending write-off (total for all periods) | Unpaid child maintenance which you owe, but is not part of a ‘negotiated amount’ of arrears that we have agreed you should pay. This amount is suspended for the time being. We will write it off when you have paid the total negotiated amount of arrears. We will have already written to you about this. |
| Previous active arrears | An amount of unpaid child maintenance transferred from the Child Support Agency. This is still due and you must pay it. |
| Previous deferred arrears | An amount of arrears which was paid to the receiving parent on your behalf by the Child Support Agency. Because you kept to the terms of the deferred debt scheme, you do not have to pay it back. |
| Previous outstanding balance | All outstanding amounts owed to the Child Support Agency. These could be for child maintenance, child maintenance arrears, costs, interest, fees or money you owe due to overpayments. |
| Previous suspended arrears | Arrears which were temporarily suspended by the Child Support Agency. You may have to pay this money back in the future. |
| Split care offset amount | This is what we do to adjust the payments due when there is more than one qualifying child and each parent is both a receiving parent and a paying parent. We call this ‘split care’. This means each parent provides the main day-to-day care for one or more of the children in a case. They will be entitled to receive maintenance for the child or children living with them. They must also pay maintenance for the qualifying child or children that do not. If one parent owes unpaid child maintenance to the other, this can be ‘offset’ against any payments that the other parent has to make. If both parents owe each other arrears, the amounts owing can be offset against each other. If there are no arrears, then the ongoing payments that each parent has to make can also be offset against each other. |
| Third party offset payment amount | A payment you’ve made to a third party that reduces the total amount of child maintenance or the total amount of arrears you owe. The payment must have been for: - a secured mortgage or loan taken out to buy the home where the child or children who qualify for child maintenance live, or to make essential repairs or improvements to it - rent on the home where the child or children who qualify for child maintenance live - mains-supplied gas, water or electricity charges for the home where the child or children who qualify for child maintenance live - essential repairs to the heating system in the home where the child or children who qualify for child maintenance live, or - Council Tax (Rates in Northern Ireland) payable by the receiving parent on the home where the child or children who qualify for child maintenance live |
| Voluntary payment amount | A payment you made direct to the receiving parent after the date when child maintenance was applied for, but before the date of the first scheduled payment. The payment must have been for: - a secured mortgage or loan taken out to buy the home where the child or children who qualify for child maintenance live, or to make essential repairs or improvements to it - rent on the home where the child or children who qualify for child maintenance live - mains-supplied gas, water or electricity charges for the home where the child or children who qualify for child maintenance live - essential repairs to the heating system in the home where the child or children who qualify for child maintenance live, or - Council Tax (Rates in Northern Ireland) payable by the receiving parent on the home where the child or children who qualify for child maintenance live |
Frequently asked questions
Can I ask for a statement at any time?
We send a child maintenance statement to everyone who has a case with us every 12 months. This is usually on the anniversary of the date when the case opened. But you can ask us to send you an up-to-date statement at any time.
Can I find out information about my payments online?
Yes, by using our self-service website. This is a personal online child maintenance account. If you’re registered, you can track your payments and get an up-to-date statement balance by logging in. It is completely safe and secure.