To let you all know that the Child Maintenance Service..

It's one of the biggest remaining examples of institutional misogyny.

I tried looking for stats on what percentage of cms claimants are sole mothers (I don’t like the term single mum as it refers to our relationship status and not the fact that we’re raising children by ourselves), and I couldn’t find them. I’m guessing this is because they would show the deep rooted misogyny surrounding child care and maintenance money in this country. No-one cares unless it affects them directly.

There’s so many CMS loopholes for men to avoid financial responsibility for their children. My ex managed it. Here’s just one example, he got a large redundancy payout last year, lives with his parents who pay all bills for him, and the redundancy money isn’t classed as income by cms. So my children’s cms payments were slashed as he chose to live it up for over six months with his redundancy money instead of getting a new job straight away. There’s no consequences for these men. The laws are interpreted by cms in the men’s favour and not the child’s.

I like the idea of the government paying a basic (and more reasonable because at the moment it’s a pittance) maintenance payment to the sole parent, before they chase the other for the debt. They’d take it a lot more seriously if he owed the government money and not his ex who he’s trying to pretend doesn’t exist.

These men should have their passports removed so they can’t go on holidays abroad (which my ex has done many times), they should be shunned socially by friends/family (which never happens), and they should have their assets seized, their credit scores impacted plus go to prison for non repayment of the debt.

It would be good if someone high up at CMS services did an AMA. Or mumsnet arranged a Q and A session with one of them.
So many questions need to be answered about this appalling service.

Do you know how many father's are being forced to pay hugely over inflated, inaccurate amounts for their children and the CMS refuses to acknowledge their appeals even though they are completely wrong? The father is then accused of breaking the law even though the CMS is in the wrong and keep adding to the arrears with no end in sight. The CMS also put people onto direct pay and add a further 20% to their pockets but provide no reason or evidence to support their reason as to why that parent is on direct pay. They also simply refuse to remove said parent from direct pay even though they havent missed a payment in years...
Trust me, its not just the receiving parent that they are screwing over in order to gain revenue.
The whole CMS needs to be under independent investigation as it clearly does not work!

It’s disgraceful. We really need to try and do more for the next generation. Unfortunately I’ll never get the £10,000s owed to my children. I hope our daughters have a better future system than this!

I am not a legal mind, however I have never quite understood how there is not a discrimination case to be at least heard around the combined actions of CMS and the benefits system pursuing single mothers. Maybe someone can explain?

I know not every single parent engaging with CMS is a single mother, but surely the statistics must be quite stark? How can childcare not be taken into account when it will likely adversely affect job progression and future income for those women?

Similarly, what statistics are there around women on benefits (who need to pay childcare) being pushed to find mythical term time, school hour jobs when they are owed thousands in back child care support?

Of course men could avoid all the stress of losing their precious ID by just paying in the first place!

This!

I’m on my 3rd UC review of the last year or so. I wish DWP paid as much attention to how my ex-h has apparently earned £0 for the last 11 years despite multiple holidays, a several brand new cars and a new house. And judging by how much weight he has put on, his food bill must be huge.

I personally wouldn’t mind UC being reduced to reflect maintenance IF it was guaranteed. But DWP know it isn’t - hence why it doesn’t affect benefits and kids don’t starve.

A better approach would for the state to pay single mothers a set and realistic amount each month (instead of the ridiculously low amounts my friends ex’s pay) and then make it a debt for the ‘fathers’ to pay off however long it takes…

If their job involves driving then maybe something else needs to happen.

I've managed to open a new bank account, get 3 DBS checks and a job without a driving licence or passport. All within the last 2 years. So it is possible.

If the job centre don't see any of this as a valid reason why I can't get a job, then it's not a valid reason for my ex either.

There is a lot that that is wrong with the USA, but as a practicing attorney in one of the states in the western USA, I will say I really appreciate the child support recovery options available. I regularly take parents who are behind on child support to court for my clients. I always ask for the possibility of jail and driver’s license suspension. I’ve never not been able to recover at least 50% of the back due child support immediately and full recovery on a tight payment schedule. The behind parents have also always been ordered to pay my fees. It is because the court is very willing to impose harsh sentences. Not because I’m some great attorney.

Bit difficult if your job is van driver or bus driver, for example. And not being able to prove ID as there's no valid licence or passport makes it much, much harder to get a job (cuts out a lot of roles that would be served by public transport, such as NHS, Education, Local Authorities and the like - the DBS checks are far more difficult when there isn't either of those documents (and many employers including those, will say 'sorry, no, not without passport and driving licence').

Exactly.

My brother and SIL both think working cash in hand is acceptable as "why should we pay tax when immigrants/single parents/whoever we hate this week doesn't?"
I did point out that SIL might change her mind if they ever very divorced, but apparently the will never happen. His first wife said that too!

I have neighbours in my street who work for CMS. Thanks for enlightening me on the challenging workload they have each week.

I've always been expected to work without a driving license. Why shouldn't men?

men

How does removing the ability to get a job (ID, driving licence), travel to a job or do the job (driving licence) help to get money from a now unemployed parent?

A quick google shows that the £756 million number is the total uncollected since 2012, and it equates to 7% of maintenance due not being collected over that period.

However I suspect the biggest issue is not the maintenance due but not collected figure of 7%, but the maintenance that is never calculated as due because the incomes of those who should pay it are legally or illegally reduced through hiding or mis declaring income.

I really don’t know why we as a country don’t sort this out. Never mind the 2 child benefit cap - we could lift so many kids out of poverty and probably without much actual cash investment if we actually enforced CMS. It’s one of the things the Americans do well - no stone left unturned if you owe any debts!

And although it costs a fortune to send people to prison and there are a shortage of spaces, you’d only need a few ‘normal’ blokes to go to prison for the majority to suddenly find they can contribute after all.

I agree my ex is paid in cash by wealthy various " upstanding members of the community" who don't seem to care that they aren't just defrauding HMRC they are defrauding his children

We live in a small place as well, I am very tempted to name and shame them all

I always insist on paying everyone by bank transfer now for this reason

Wow!

Does not surprise me in the slightest. My ex forged a letter from his mum claiming she was financially responsible for him, at the big age of 30, she worked part time at KFC but managed to fund his monthly trips to Amsterdam, 3x per week nights out as well as running her home. Once he got a job that wasn’t cash in hand he paid 2p per month, instead of the whopping £32 he was meant to pay, they said they couldn’t do anything because he was making a payment. This was after trying to deny that our son is his, something that was never mentioned until CMS got involved.

That is shocking @YourWildAmberSloth. It will be because the Home Office has SSCL as their really crap payroll. I’d suggest writing to their Perm Sec Antonia Romero - completely unacceptable that a civil servant can dodge their responsibilities.

If CMS write to you and the letter reads as if they are telling you they are wiping the debt please be aware that it's actually up to you if it's wiped.

If you write back - please do so recorded delivery - stating that you want the debt to remain on file they have to do this.

It is not their debt - it's debt owed to you.

The letters are something I've complained about numerous times as people do not realise that they have a choice.

One of the most satisfying cases I ever worked on was a man who dodged his debts for years. Then very deliberately wrote a will leaving money to his siblings actually stating that it was to be spent on his children but not by "her" (his ex wife). He would have been outraged at the fact on his death his £63000ish debt was claimed from his estate and paid to his ex wife (who was actually the carer of their three children one of whom was severely disabled).

My sons father is a civil servant FFS and CMS can't impose a detachment of earnings order. Apparently his department - The Home Office - have not/will not complete the form. So if once government department cannot get money from an employee in another government department, what hope does anyone else have!