Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will bring forward proposals to take into consideration pension deductions prior to calculating child maintenance payments.
The Child Maintenance Service already takes account of a paying parent’s contribution towards an approved occupational or personal pension scheme.
For paying parents in employment, this will usually happen automatically, since employers will have already offset contributions under PAYE arrangements. Where this does not happen, for example because the contributions are paid directly to a pension provider, the paying parent will be asked to tell the Child Maintenance Service how much they pay into their pension scheme.