Xh in child maintenance arrears - what to do?

[dulcefarniente]

We have a finance order that says he will pay in line with the child maintenance calculator. He claimed he'd set up a direct debit but the payments have got steadily later in the month until he is now a month behind. I know a lot of people would love to have received as much as I have but if I don't tackle it now it will only get worse.

I assume going to court will incur costs that I can't afford. Xh says that using the child maintenance people will cost us both money. His increasingly delayed payments have always been blamed on the bank cocking up. He promised a double payment to get on track but this hasn't happened.

Does anyone have experience of the "Direct pay" scheme? How does that work? The website is a bit woolly on the finer details. Have you found that it works?

WWYD?

[LemonSqueezy0]

If you go via the CMS it will cost you £20 one off fee to set up. They will give your ex the opportunity to pay, and if it eventually came to the point where they were deducting the money it would cost him an additional 20% to cover their fees, and you 4% for the same reason. If court was more than 1 year before you an now go via cms.