Just got my maintenance award for the year WHOOP WHOOP

[ThatWomanInTheDress]

£3.36 a week

No doubt like all of you I’ve daydreamed about what I would do if I hit the jackpot. But this type of money is mind blowing.

Can’t decide what I’m going to buy DD first. So excited!!

That is ridiculous, I honestly cannot see how the non resident parent can get away with paying such a pitiful amount at times. They should pay properly towards the costs of a child they helped create.

@Peakypolly

They should face imprisonment for not supporting their children, or their benefit being taken It takes 2 parents to provide for a child whether together or not.

Can anyone explain why this is not the case?

Because politicians don’t give a fuck. Therefore there is absolutely no political will or push for CMS to use the powers they have.

CMS have the powers. They just don’t use them!

"No mention of what they are planning to do about the unpaid debt before he “went on benefits”

don't worry op they'll have their very top lawyers and sleuths on that for you licketty spit

That’s so bloody depressing. Whole system is a shambles.

But luckily they’ve included some helpful advice for how I can manage my money.

Oh really? What pearls of wisdom did they offer?

If you think he's pulling your leg, undeclared self employed etc ask for a variation of income form, you write everything you know on it and they investigate,,, xxx good luck love, hope he can't sleep at night

@WishingHopingThinkingPraying

I actually think payment of maintenance should have a minimum even if it forces some men to sell their homes and live somewhere cheaper. You know, the sort of choices the mums have to make to keep their children alive.

This.

If that’s all you have to pay someone to care for the child I’d be punting them off to him and chucking him £3...see how he manages!

I dream of that kind of money. I havent had any regular money since DD was about 5, she's 14 now.

One year, he bought her some school shoes and some new uniform. Thats it in 9 years. His parents have helped me out more financially for things for DD over the year than he has.

Oh OP. Be grateful or you'll be accused of being a money-grabbing bitch.

And it's £3.36 a week more than many children. Not that that makes it right.

When I was a kid my dad was ordered fo pay £5 a year! Never got it either. He pleaded poverty apparently.

That's crap. This pisses me off. Nobody rails at these feckless fathers cos it's so much easier and suits their narrative to blame benefit claiming single mums. Makes me sick.
My dad deliberately declared himself bankrupt to avoid paying maintenance. He had a successful business which I'm sure he carried on with cash in hand. 🙄

Probably very random, and not relevant to many, but whatever you do, don’t allow CMS to write off the debt. Ever.

A friend of mine’s ex died very unexpectedly relatively recently and he left everything to his new girlfriend. Didn’t bother making any provision for his children at all. It also came out that he had far more assets than he’d ever let on. The CMS debt came out of the estate before it was paid out to the beneficiaries.

It’s not going to be an everyday thing, but you never know what’s going to happen in life. Keeping it on file means if their circumstances change then the debt is still owed.

@Chimeraforce

That's crap. This pisses me off. Nobody rails at these feckless fathers cos it's so much easier and suits their narrative to blame benefit claiming single mums. Makes me sick. My dad deliberately declared himself bankrupt to avoid paying maintenance. He had a successful business which I'm sure he carried on with cash in hand. 🙄

That shouldn’t have made a difference to his debt.

A colleague of DH’s tried to do that. He was absolutely livid when he discovered midway through that bankruptcy doesn’t wipe child maintenance debt.

I've never understood why the RP has to foot the bill if the NRP is on a low income. Children need to be kept fed, clothed and warm regardless of the parents' income and if the RP did not do this, it would (rightly) be considered neglect.

There must be a better way of ensuring child support. This should be high on the agenda of female politicians, especially those on the left. I'm not directly affected, but I've witnessed it over the years in various circumstances, and its appalling.

My father went to court to ask if he could pay less for me in 1972. He was paying £1.25 a week.

My daughter receives nothing for her child. The father somehow manages to live in an expensive part of London, can afford to run a car and go on expensive holidays (pre Covid) without earning anything traceable by CMS. I’d like to see maintenance dodging a crime punishable by imprisonment.

There’s just no political will.

Years ago the system was that RP’s on benefits were only allowed to keep £20 a week of maintenance and the rest was owed to the Secretary of State to offset the cost of benefits.

The debts owed, predominantly by men, got so high that they then said “actually we’ll just let the RP keep it and not count it as income toward benefits”. They knew that many many didn’t a penny, but they didn’t care.

They didn’t care so much that when my father died, when I was in my thirties, his estate owed the S.O.S money. I’m the youngest of his children. My grandparents, who he owed the maintenance too were dead so that part of his debt was written off. Even when the money was owed to the government they didn’t chase, instead they gave up.

My step DCs egg donor of a mother has never paid a penny for any of them. Hasn’t seen them in two years despite living in the same village. She can’t hold down a job for more than a couple of weeks because it’s too stressful for the poor little lamb

Some people are utter cunts.

I love the idea of a minimum payment for child maintenance. I do think it’s a reflection of how sexist our society still is that men can get away with just leaving the huge majority of the financial cost of raising children to the mother without anyone batting an eyelid.

Someone start a campaign!

Count yourself fricking lucky op. My mate's feckless shit of an ex paid her £10 a month and when he or his twatbag friends saw her buying anything in a shop that wasn't for her children (for example, a pair of £8 Tesco trousers), he deducted the amount from his maintenance as he's not paying for her to "enjoy herself".

This makes me so angry. I can only assume that he has no conscience 🤷🏻‍♀️

Don't go spending it all at once now will you op

What a load of shit, it's so insulting. So many get away with it, my dad gave my mum £5 a week for 5 children