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<p>The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) does not take into account a person’s “lifestyle”
in calculating a maintenance liability.</p><p> </p><p>The CMS has access to income
information held by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), allowing us to capture a much wider
range of income types received by Paying Parents. The definition of income within
the 2012 scheme includes almost all additional sources of gross income captured by
self-assessment. We refer to this as “unearned income” and it includes incomes from
property, savings and investments (including dividends) and other miscellaneous incomes.</p><p>
</p><p>This provides a more effective route to taking these kinds of income into account
than the “lifestyle” ground which existed for the previous schemes of maintenance.</p>
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