How long did child maintenance claim take to process?

[Inaminuteplease]

Hi, I am not with my daughters dad and have received no maintenance for the last 6 months from him nor has he seen her or shown any interest in seeing her.

I rang CMS on 15/8 and gave them all the information I had and they said they would try to contact him. I very much doubt that he will answer the phone or talk to them in anyway. Was anyone else in the same situation? And how long did it take for them to process your claim when they couldn't get hold of the father? TIA

I contacted on 2/7 and it was sorted roughly by 18/7 but no payments until middle of September.

@TheNightIsForever was this without them being able to get in contact with the father?

Yes he refused to acknowledge any of their correspondence.

@TheNightIsForever thanks, I think this will be the case with my ex.

2.5 years here and counting.

@PipeTheFuckDown oh no! This is what I'm dreading, why is it taking so long?

21 years.... I’m not holding out much hope now to be honest

@justasyouare did you ever get an explanation from CMS as to why they couldn't sort it?

Nope. It was the CSA back then and I gave them all his details, even his shift pattern. He ignored all correspondence and even denied paternity They said they would take him to court, revoke his driving licence (apparently that was something they could do??) , take money directly from wages.
They eventually closed the case, never took him to court or anything.
I just hope the new organisation are better than the CSA!

The new organisation is the old one with different letters. No better in my opinion. It took CSA ages to get maintenance deducted from exp's wages then they go and change names and hey ho the process starts all over again. It's just gone to collect and pay because surprise surprise he didn't pay voluntarily this time either. I wouldn't stress about it and don't expect any level of timely service. If your exp is a nice soft target with a regular wage it might be quicker but they really aren't interested in working for their twenty quid.

@redfairy he does have a regular wage and steady job so I'm hoping it will be easy but I know he will do whatever he can to get out of it!