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Payment of deductions

You must pay us the amount of child maintenance you have taken from your employee’s wages. This must be done within 19 days from the end of the calendar month in which you made the deduction. Once you have made the first deduction you should establish a regular pattern of payment to us. This will mean we don’t have to contact you or your employee.

If this is not done you could be prosecuted under section 32(8) of the Child Support Act 1991.

Paying by automated credit transfer

This is our preferred way of collecting child maintenance payments because of its security and quick clearance times. The information that you need to provide to your bank is:

  • Our account name CSA Client Fund Account
  • Our bank sort code number 40-34-18
  • Our bank account number 41775448

When setting up an automated credit transfer, please make sure that the information is set out as shown in the following table.

You should send a separate automated credit transfer payment for each employee.

BACS field number Description of field Content
1 Destination sorting code number 40-34-18
2 Destination account number 41775448
3 Destination type of account codeTrans 0
4 Transaction code 99
5 Originating sort code number Your company's bank sort code
6 Origination account number Your company's bank account number
7 Free Not used
8 Amount (expressed in pence) Value of deduction
9 User's name Your company's name
10 Liable person's reference number See Client Reference Numbers below
11 Destination account name CSA CLIENT FUNDS

All of this information is important but especially 'Field 10, Client Reference numbers' which is vital to ensure the money you deduct and send us is correctly assigned. You must ensure that the reference number quoted in this field is taken from the latest deduction from earnings order provided by us (this can be found in the top right hand corner of the notification). The valid reference numbers will be in one of the following formats:

Reference Number Description of field Field Length Field Type Example
NINO Liable person's National Insurance Number 9 Alpha-numeric NA123456A
RFA Liable person's request for assessment number 12 Numeric 100123456701
PID Liable person's person identifier 12 Numeric 001234567800

Note: Please ensure that the reference number entered does not include any additional characters (i.e. quotes, dashes, underscores, full-stops etc.)

My systems do not support Detailed ACT – how do I pay through my internet banking?

You can pay through your internet banking by setting the CSA up as a new Payee – you will need set-up a Payee record for each of the employees you are administering a DEO for. Once a Payee record has been set up on your internet banking site for each employee, you will need to make a single transfer per employee per payment period.

You should set the CSA up as a Payee for each DEO employee using the following details:

  • Payee Account number: 41775448
  • Payee Sort code: 40-34-18
  • Payee Account name: CSA Client Funds
  • Payee Reference Number: Employee’s Reference Number (this is the number we provided to you in the latest letter from us about making deductions from earnings – see the table above for more details).

On the appropriate payment date for each employee, you should make a single payment to the appropriate Payee account details for each employee you are administering a DEO on behalf of. If you prefer, you could use the same method to pay via your bank’s telephone banking service.

Sending an automated credit transfer.

If you send automated credit transfer payments covering deductions for one or more liable persons, you must also send a deduction from earnings order payments schedule (CSF802).

You can send this by post to:

Client Fund Account Team
Child Support Agency
Room BP6102 Alnwick House
Benton Park View
Longbenton
Newcastle Upon Tyne
NE98 1YX

A copy of the deduction from earnings order payments schedule is included in the back of the leaflet CSL313 [PDF 216Kb] PDF

You can use it as a master to produce as many photocopies as you need. Additional copies are available from the centre that sent you the order.

You can get a copy of the new scheme schedule (CSF802) here (PDF - 276KB)PDF

The deduction from earnings order payments schedule must include the following details for each liable person:

  • their full name (forenames and surname)
  • their reference number and
  • the amount of the deduction taken (in pounds sterling).

The amount of the automated credit transfer must be the same as the total amount of deduction shown on the deductions from earnings order payments schedule. (See overpayments)

Until we receive this information we will not know who the child maintenance payment is for. This will delay the money being passed to the parent with care of the child.

Paying by cheque

Please make all cheques payable to Child Support Agency.

You should send the cheque(s) and the deduction from earnings order payments schedule to the Child Support Agency Centre shown on the order. The deduction from earnings order payments schedule must list the following information:

  • the employee’s full name (forenames and surname)
  • the employee’s reference number and
  • the amount of the deduction taken (in pounds sterling).

The amount of the cheque must be the same as the total amount of deductions shown on the deduction from earnings order payments schedule.

If you are sending payments to more than one Child Support Agency Centre, contact one of the centres to arrange to send all payments to them.

Overpayments

Do not use the deduction from earnings order payments schedule to recover or deduct previous overpayments. If an overpayment has happened, you should contact the Client Fund Account Team for advice.

Underpayments

If the payment we receive is not the same as the total shown on the schedule of payments, a member of the Client Fund Account Team will contact you.

Cancellation of a deduction from earnings order

If we decide to end a deduction from earnings order, we will write to you and your employee. The letter will tell you we have cancelled the order and to stop taking deductions from the date of the letter. You should not stop taking deductions unless we have written to you.

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Related information

For child maintenance worked out on or after 3 March 2003

For child maintenance worked out before 3 March 2003