Child Maintenance Service Team

Mr A James Phone number: 0800 171 2345

Dear Mr James

Your child maintenance payments will not change

Thank you for telling us that your gross weekly income has changed.

Your gross weekly income is your income before income tax and National Insurance are deducted, but after
occupational pension contributions are taken away.

Because you could not give us proof of a change to your gross weekly income the amount of child
maintenance you must pay each week will not change.

What this means for you

You must continue to make your child maintenance payments as set out in the most recent Payment
Plan we sent to you.

The amount of gross weekly income that we used to work out your child maintenance payments is £1507.05
per week. This figure was given to us by you, your employer or accountant.

For example, if the gross weekly income amount we used to work out your child maintenance payments was
£500, that amount must rise above £625 or fall below £375 for it to affect payments.

If we are given proof that your gross weekly income has changed by 25%, we’ll use the up-to-date amount
to work out your payments.

A reminder of income changes you must tell us about

You must tell us within 14 days of an income-related change that may result in your gross weekly
income increasing by 25% or more.

We will consider a 25% change to have happened if you receive either:

• Five weekly payments in a row which are at least 25% higher than the gross weekly income we used
to work out how much child maintenance you must pay;

The Child Maintenance Service is part of the Department for Work & Pensions. The service
administers the statutory Child Maintenance 2012 scheme.
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 • Three fortnightly payments in a row which are at least 25% higher than the gross income amount we
used to work out how much child maintenance you must pay; or

• Two monthly (or two four-weekly) payments in a row which are at least 25% higher than the gross
income amount we used to work out how much child maintenance you must pay

If you are employed you must tell us if you change your employer, your working hours or if your rate of pay
increases and as a result your income changes by at least 25%. For example, if you change your hours from
part-time to full-time or if you receive a promotion.

If you are an office-holder such as a registered company director or board member, you must tell us if your
rate of pay changes or you hold a new office.

If you don’t tell us about the changes highlighted above, you may be prosecuted. Your child maintenance
payments will also be backdated to the date when the change happened.

You don’t have to tell us about changes to your income if you are self employed. This is because you
would not be able to tell if a 25% change has taken place until the end of the financial year.

You also don’t have to tell us about any income you may receive from investments, property, savings or
dividends.

Please call us on 0800 171 2345 if you are unsure whether you need to report a change.

What happens next

We’ll ask you to give us up-to-date information about your gross weekly income on 20 August 2021.

We’ll also look again at how much child maintenance you must pay during your Annual Review on 14
October 2021. This is when we use the latest available information given to HM Revenue & Customs by you,
your employer, or another third party such as your accountant to see if the amount of child maintenance
you must pay should change or stay the same.

We will write to you with more information about this nearer the time.

More information

The leaflet Changes you need to tell us about tells you more about what happens if your income changes.
This is available online at www.gov.uk/child-maintenance, or you can ask us to send you a copy.

Visit our website for more information, or call us on 0800 171 2345 if you have any questions.

Yours sincerely

Client Services Manager Child Maintenance Service

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What to do if you think this decision is wrong

Please see the enclosed factsheet for information about your legal rights if you disagree with the decision this letter refers to or want
us to look at it again. You should read this factsheet because it forms part of our official notice and is important legal information.

If the factsheet is not in the envelope with this letter then please contact us by signing in to your My Child Maintenance Case or call
us on 0800 171 2345.

Changes you must tell us about straight away

If either parent’s circumstances change, it can mean that we need to change the amount of child maintenance that must be paid.
You should tell us about a change in income, a change of employer, a change of address, or the details of any new family that
includes children.

If you are a parent who pays child maintenance (often called a paying parent and referred to in legislation as the non-resident
parent), you must tell us if:
• your address changes (you must tell us about this within seven days of the date that your address changes);
• you pay child maintenance through a deduction from earnings order and you leave your job. You must tell us:
– the name and address of your new employer (if this applies to you)
– how much you expect to earn
– your payroll number (if you are given one)

If you are a paying parent and the income figure we use to work out your child maintenance was given to us by you, your
accountant or your employer you must also tell us within seven working days if your income increases by 25 per cent or more.

Under child support law it is a criminal offence if anyone required to provide certain information:
• fails to provide such information without reasonable excuse, or
• provides information, or knowingly causes or allows information to be provided, that they know to be false.

If a court finds them guilty of the criminal offence outlined above, they can be fined up to £1,000.

If you are a parent who receives child maintenance (often called a receiving parent and referred to in legislation as the parent
with care), or any other person with the main day-to-day care of a child, you must tell us if there is a change to:
• the number of children living with you that the paying parent must pay child maintenance for
• the number of nights a child regularly stays overnight with the paying parent.

You must also tell us if you think child maintenance should no longer be paid for any reason. For example, if:
• anyone involved in the case goes to live abroad - this could be the paying parent, the receiving parent, or any child included
in the calculation
• a different person becomes the main day-to-day carer of any child included in the calculation
• child benefit stops being paid for any child included in the calculation
• any child included in the calculation leaves full-time non-advanced education or approved training, or gets married, or
forms a civil partnership
• anyone involved in the case passes away

If you are not sure whether or not to tell us about a change, please contact us and ask. You can do this by signing in to your My Child
Maintenance Case or by calling us. We will bring your case up to date with any relevant changes that you tell us about.

Why DWP needs personal information and how we treat it

We treat personal information carefully. We may use it for any of our purposes. To learn about information rights and how we use
information, please see our DWP Personal Information Charter at www.gov.uk

Call charges

Calls to 0800 numbers are free from landlines and mobiles.

Alternative formats

If you need this letter in an alternative format like large print, audio or Braille please call us on 0800 171 2345 or if you use
Textphone contact us on 0800 232 1975. Textphones are used by people with a speech or hearing impairment; this does not mean
text messaging.

If English is not your first language and you need a translated copy of this letter please call us on 0800 171 2345 to request this. We

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can also provide you with an interpreter over the phone. Call 0800 171 2345 and tell us what language you need.

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