Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of levels of co-operation between employers and the Child Maintenance Service to process deductions of earnings in a timely manner.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has made significant improvements to better the working relationships between themselves and employers in order to process Deduction from Earnings Orders (DEO) in a timely manner.

Previously all Deduction from Earnings Orders (DEO) were handled by individual caseworkers. In order to improve DEO compliance a dedicated team have been established in CMS who work closely with employers, providing support and advice throughout the process to ensure that payments are processed in a timely manner.

The team has implemented a process from tracking and escalating issues where a DEO payment may not have been made or where the employer has not fully met their DEO requirements.