CMS - Has anyone had any experience with non/late payments?

[NGC2017]

Hi

As the subject suggests, does anyone have any experience with this?

My sons maintenance is deducted directly from my ex's salary and paid via his employer through Collect and Pay.

It is now 11 days late. I have gone through the history of all his payments and it is most definitely never been this late, ever. I have contacted CMS numerous times and keep getting told that I have to give them more time and then they will chase the employer for a reason why. What annoys me is I have to pay a fee for this service, and I know the payee has to too. So the CMS are getting £60 a month just for transferring money between accounts. This annoys me as for one, I feel my son is entitled to that, and 2, its a hefty fee to keep getting told I need to wait. By the time they are prepared to follow up it will be 1st March, which means he would already have been paid and it wont have been deducted. And I understand if they cant recover it they wont?

Im starting to get worried as the end of the months is fast approaching, I have our bills to pay next month and a huge debt repayment which is dad left us in and i've been having to pay, so being financially down is making me feel abit ill now.

Thanks x

[Louw12345]

Yes I have no payment from November til January. It wasn't CMS it was down to the employer. There systems may be down or just alittle late with payments or he's left that job.

[NGC2017]

Thanks

So what happend with the months you never received payment? Are they simply forgot about?

[NGC2017]

i've just called again to have a moan. Kept getting the 'you cant rely on maintenance. We always advise that maintenance is not guaranteed'. So I said why am I paying a fee if you aren't willing to chase them. She also said even if repayments restart i am not guaranteed to receive the missed payment, and they cannot actually do anything until.
Pisses me off as he is definitely still working there. He is all over their fb page and website. He works on the side cash in hand which he isnt declaring, yet I should not rely on maintenance payments. Really!
Now he was most definitely involved in conceiving our child, a child that needs raising, feeding, transporting etc every month. As a parent (he is named on BC) surely he has responsibilites to financially support that child? It is neither mine or my sons fault he chooses to have no contact with him. Just another example of how absent parents can evade their PR

Sorry to rant but I used the CMS to go via the correct channels. Now is appears there is no real support for my son. If they dont get the payment I wont and they wont chase to get it. Absolutely USELESS

[Whoknows11]

The cms are corrupt in my view!

Put in a complaint and speak to your local mp!

I understand and sympathise how frustrating the service is 😬

[NGC2017]

I understand is some respects that he cant be chased, e.g. if he leaves the country, but whilst this agreement is via DOE and he is still employed there, it is simply a case of making a phone call to see what is going on, which they have said they need to wait to do! And then they have to wait 3 months with no payment to see if they can enforce anything. I would have hoped a DOE order would have given my son abit more security as whilst he is still working there to my knowledge it should get paid as usual.

I was very naive to believe this service was established to ensure parents financially support their child. There is no guarantee at all. Even something as simple as making a call wont be done

[Starlight2345]

I agree the maintenance is supposed to help support the child not just pay for luxury items . I am yet to see any benefit from the change from the csa to cms .
I only get £7 a week so it doesn’t make a difference to me if he pays or not but I expect him too . We both decided to have a baby

[Louw12345]

19th is the pay date but takes up to 5 days then they add another 5 days before they can get intouch with the employer to ask what is going on.
They told me there was no payment in the employers account.
When I rang I was told they would get intoich with the employer by a certain date. (Monday) I sent a message through online thing on friday then rang and they only did it that day I rang.

By the 19th of jan I got the back dated payments.

Every payment was weekly till this week but we have just had a review so I assumme that is what slowed it down abit.

[Louw12345]

It took me months to sort out my CMS claim as my ex refused to pay so I went through collect and pay. He ended up with a debt of over a grand. He only had to pay 36 a week but now he pays 75 for the kids to receive 51 including the debt.
It should get easier if not put a complaint in. I was making weekly and sometimes daily phone calls