Does the CMS actually know what they are doing?????

[SpideyMom]

Morning

Does anyone else feel like the CMS take the piss with their child's maintenance?

Basically, I have moaned on here about the service many times over the last few years, so I will try and not go into too much detail, however they have been nothing but a joke.

For the last two years maintenance has been paid via my DS Dad's employer (DoE) when they choose, (though last year was paid better than the previous year). It has been a DoE since inception of the case. This erratic payment built up arrears that at last years annual review were confirmed to me at the point of also confirming the next 12 months total maintenance and fees etc, and payments have then followed. Into this current maintenance period I have so far received 7 payments and somehow he has now apparently overpaid by 100's of pounds!
I can honestly say no additional money has ever been received other than the confirmed payments, nor have either of our circumstances changed. My online account is now saying nothing is owed for the next few months which I cannot understand? I know they work on a daily rate, but i've sat here and calculated my annual, monthly, weekly and daily rates, all minus the collection fees and there is no way no maintenance can not be due for the next few months. In fact this years total maintenance, minus annual fees, plus arrears, minus payments received to date, there should still be 5 payments due of a similar amount I have been receiving up until now.

I fully accept that I could have miscalculated as I dont know how they exactly work it out, but even still there is a significant balance remaining up until next review which will not be cleared given what my online account is currently showing me.

Any advice?

TIA xx

[PumpkinP]

I don’t get any maintenance for 4 children and haven’t in 3 years as my ex doesn’t work or claim benefits! Cms can’t do anything either they really are a joke, there should be consequences for not paying.

[TheOrigRightsofwomen]

I have never known such an incompetent service.

[slipperywhensparticus]

Is he still working? Has he changed jobs? Has he had another child?

I would ring them up and ask why they have wiped his arrears

[Blankscreen]

The arrears shouldn't be wiped.

I asked for a statement of account which showed every amount due and paid. It took about 2 months to come through.

the CMS letter said one band for the deduction but they actually reduced it by too much.


Ask them to explain it to you month by month. Refuse to accept what they are saying and ask to speak to a manager if need be. I have found that eventually the penny drops. I've been on the phone to them for an hour sometimes.
Raise a complaint.

[SpideyMom]

Thanks all, I am going to ask for a statement of account.

Over the last 2 years I have had to make several complaints and involve my MP 4 times. On one occasion, the agent was arguing saying I was wrong and eventually admitting that I was actually right all along. They do not know what they are doing!

A new child was declared back in Feb 2019, which unbeknownst to me meant that he was already chipping away at his maintenance debt as it was before annual review. This I dont really agree with. As any change that may affect a child's life surely needs to be notified to the resident parent when it happens. However he was still in around the equivalent of 7 months payments of debt at the annual review so definitely shouldn't have been wiped. He put a cap on his wages, so he was only paying just under £30 a month extra to clear them. He is in the same job.

His not in our lives yet he still has such a part in it and i hate that. This year I have to work at getting us financially independent of the maintenance. He left me with all his debt, I work 30 hours a week around my childs school day to avoid childcare, (unfortunately in a low paid job). Would love to retrain but having a mortgage, a child and other outgoings it isn't like I can just jump and walk into a dream job. I feel so stuck :-(

[Graciebutterfly]

Just wondering has anyone else received a call asking them about CMS?
I had a quick call today asking some basic questions and if I had any other input about their service.

[notturningintopowerranger]

I gave up. Like @PumpkinP my ex would just stop working, I think to avoid paying. He whined incessantly about paying through CMS, and I put myself out of my misery, and called it off. So I can’t help here, but I can empathise. I think it’s terrible more isn’t done to ensure non-res parent pays to support their child.

[daisystone]

I had a terrible time a few years back with CMS when ex husband decided it was more important to get himself sorted out rather than contribute to the upbringing of his (planned) child. He pays now, but as he is self-employed, for a long time it was a nightmare. I went round in circles, no one did anything at CMS for a long long time despite them telling me that they had the authority to take away driving license or passport. As Ex need to drive for his job that would have hit him hard but they did not enforce it. He built up thousands in arrears. The only thing that made him start paying and not avoiding paying was when he got a new girlfriend who is a teacher. She would not have been too pleased if he was taken to court for child maintenance arrears and so he bucked up and started paying. I will never forget that period though and the sheer awfulness of the service who are supposedly there to help parents left in dire straits. They do not help, it is simply bureaucracy and ineffectualness and having to explain your long-winded detailed situation everytime you phone up because there seems to be no log that the person on the end of the phone refers to properly. I think CMS are terrible when they could in reality be doing so much more for children's situations. How awful that parents leave a child financially and emotionally and how awful that they are not held to account for it.

[FlashingFedora]

YANBU. I have also been 'overpaid' because my exe's request for a mandatory reconsideration (one of many) was, and I quote, 'buried'. By the time they got round to dealing with it 12 months had passed, I now haven't received anything for 9 months and they are unable to tell me when I can expect payments to be reinstated. I've already been to tribunal once with these incompetent twits, and won. Currently on stage 3 of my complaint and looks like I'll be heading back to tribunal. They are the most incompetent organisation I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with, and I've told them as much.

[daisystone]

That rule is really awful lazymoz . A man can have another child with a new partner and then because of that pay less for the child that he already does not provide much for. It happened to me, my weekly payments took a hit and they barely cover much anyway. Can't property provide for a child but happy to procreat again. The whole system is a shambles and not fit for purpose

[bibliomania]

I don't think they are incompetent - it's just that I think their real aim is to ensure that their service doesn't look too bad (ie. minimise reported arrears) rather than to make sure RPs get a proper financial contribution. At least at a managerial level, and that filters down through the ranks. Some of the frontline staff seem genuinely nice people and I don't want to have a rant at them.

I'm pondering whether it's worth battling with them. Exh currently pays £30 per month when the CMS letter says it should be a couple of hundred. The thing is, I'm not sure they're right - he has gone back to postgrad study and I think he probably got a loan so that's why he went off benefits. If that's the case, he may not be obliged to send me anything at all. I don't know anything for sure - normally he boasts about any job on Facebook (oh yes, I stalk him there, trying to pick up intel on finances!) but there is no reference to a new job there. Should I take a stand and risk losing the current pittance?

Also, I've a feeling they've wiped some arrears against my explicit instructions. They invited me to call in to say what I wanted to happen with the arrears and I said don't wipe - but I don't have a written record of that, so it's my word against theirs.

I can feel my blood pressure rising at the prospect of going back and having a dispute with them, and there's not much to be gained. It might be worthwhile if exh were ever to become a decent earner, but I'm not holding my breath.