Any experince of Child Maintenance Service?

[balia]

DH has been paying his ex for the last 10+ years through CSA without any problems.

We had a letter to say the arrangement was coming to an end so asked ex what she wanted to do. She said she'd look into it.

Got another reminder; wrote to ex suggesting a family-based arrangement paying the CSA amount so nobody has to pay application fees or extra money to CMS.

Have heard nothing. Last payment goes out this coming Friday. Assume it doesn't get to ex that day but probably not longer than a week's delay? And then she'll not have the money coming in.

DH quite concerned - she has MH issues, a chaotic lifestyle, super-disorganised etc. Her family will help her out but obviously DH wants to support his son - but also really doesn't want to give her cash. If she has applied to the CMS without telling him (don't think she has) how long would it take them to sort it out?

If she hasn't - what should he do?

[balia]

You can tell it's been a long weekend. 'experience'.

[ThatIsNachoCheese]

Why doesn't he want to give her cash? What's the difference between that and her getting cash through CSA?
She will get less money if he pays through the new system so it makes sense to do it privately surely?

[balia]

Doesn't want to give her cash because then there is no evidence he has done it - we can't afford to pay twice and she has form for this prior to CSA. Happily pay into her bank account or whatever method she likes that can be evidenced. Yes, we think it makes more sense to do it privately, DH wants the money to go to her, not some privatised company.

[bloodyteenagers]

Online banking - bank transfer - reference maintainance.. There's evidence of payments.

[balia]

Need her bank details for that. Have asked for them. DH asked to speak to her tonight when he returned DSS but she was out. She really struggles to deal with any kind of organisation - her family prop her up a LOT.

[IggertyZiggertyZoom]

Sorry - wrong thread!

[Fourormore]

Contact the CMS yourselves. Pay the £20 fee, they'll write to her for her bank details.

My DH's ex told the CMS that he had paid maintenance and could prove it with bank statements etc and they said it didn't matter so we had to pay twice for one month, it wasn't a small amount either.

[Wdigin2this]

Four, that's outrageous, how could they make him pay again when he had evidence that he'd already paid???

[horseygeorgie]

I wouldn't hold out much hope - I paid my £20 last march. I STILL haven't received anything! They cocked it up once and took Exs earning from 5 years ago. The problem is he has an older child with someone else and they took everything from when she started a claim. Now I've been told I am 'entitled' to £15 per month. She is 'entitled' to £85. He earns a decent amount of money, even though his grip on the job is loose at best!

[HeddaGarbled]

Can he go through her family, either to get her bank details or send the money to one of them to pass on? Or write her a cheque and take a photo of it - that plus his bank statements will be enough to prove payment.

[Fourormore]

Wdigin - they said any payments that happened before their involvement weren't something that they could take into account.

[balia]

That's exactly what we're worried about, Four. We did talk about him applying but really don't want to have 24% of the money not going to DSS. Plus if they take ages to sort it out, as horsey says, DSS will be going without unless DH gives her money and then he might have to pay twice, which we really can't afford. Also, Dh's ex can be a bit funny about authority figures of any kind and may not take it well that DH has applied.

Maybe cheques would be the way to go, take photos of them like Hedda says? Mind you, then we are relying on her to cash them, and that isn't a certainty. It says in the booklet to keep a record of payments but only standing order or money transfer service is mentioned. Would they accept cheques as evidence, d'you think?

[Fourormore]

It's not 24%. That's only if he refused to pay and they had to chase him for it. For a normal family based arrangement or for Direct pay, there's no fee except the £20 application fee.

Perhaps my DH was told wrong but they were absolutely clear: any payments made before the application date were disregarded. As I say, he had bank statements with payments marked "Child Maintenance". Made no difference.

[balia]

I thought to avoid the collection fees the parents have to agree between themselves 'when and how the payments are made' which is what we are struggling to do? But then it does say at the bottom that it's possible to set up direct Pay without any contact between the parents.

Maybe DH will have to ring them.

[Fourormore]

You can definitely do Direct Pay. Put it this way - despite never having missed a single payment to his ex, and despite her lying to the CMS, and despite her specifically asking for DH to be put on Collect and Pay, the CMS still put them on Direct Pay. There's no fees for us. She paid the £20 fee. They told us how much to pay based on DH's HMRC records. Very simple.

[balia]

That sounds great! How long did it take to get sorted out?

[Fourormore]

Less than a week.