Petition · past parliament · Department for Work and Pensions

Stop Deduction from Earnings Orders (DEO) for child maintenance debts

Closed 886 signatures

What the petition asks

The Government should stop child maintenance debts being collected by the Child Maintenance Service through Deduction from Earnings Orders (DEO). Instead the CMS should be required to engage with the paying parent and agree repayments based on affordability assessment.
Deduction of Earnings Orders are a controversial form of collection that take money from a Non-Resident Parent’s (NRP) earnings every month. The principle behind this is that a parent who is refusing to pay has an order to make the deductions.

We call on the UK Government to understand the pressures this can put on NRPs and replace it with a process focusing on the affordability of payments through means testing for the paying parent.

Timeline

28 Jul 2022 Petition opened for signatures
11 Feb 2023 Closed to new signatures

Key facts

Signatures 886
Status Closed
Department Department for Work and Pensions
Opened 28 Jul 2022
Closed 11 Feb 2023

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.