Child maintenance

[Gremlinsatsupper]

My friend put a claim into CMS on 20th November.
Her ex was paying 100 a month cash and last paid early November. He stopped when he got the CMS letter in December. He is abusive financially, physically and verbally. He is blocked on her phone. She reported to police when they were together but she did not pursue. (I include this as it was a huge step going to CMS due to the abuse).

They wrote to him etc and established he should be paying far more. They wrote to my friend on 3rd Jan saying with a schedule of his payments starting 1st March.

The last voluntary payment he made was early November.

She rang them today and they said he doesn’t have to pay December, Jan or Feb - which seems very odd.

Is this correct?
If it is incorrect what can she do?

They will take the payments due from when she applied into account as arrears and will schedule them in to the payments for the next 12 months. They give time to set up the payment but the missed periods are not ignored. HTH

Thanks for your reply.

That’s not mentioned in the letter she received. It just details the weekly child maintenance and in italics not including arrears. Then it shows the amount in £.

If I multiply the weekly amount by 52 weeks in the year and then divide by 12 months in the year it matches the amount detailed on the monthly payment column. So this suggests they are not asking for the missing payments.

It does not mention any of the money missing from December, Jan or Feb at all. They said it starts in March when she rang.

Letter states the following (I have changed the figures for privacy but the calculations are the same)

Calculation effective 3rd Jan

Reason for calculation - first calculation on case

Weekly child maintenance - regular maintenance not including arrears - £75.12

What we used £x ex annual income

Date
1st March 2024 to 1st Jan 2025 - this is in a column.

On the right next to each date it has the ‘expected amount including any arrears’

£325.52 this is the same each month

so I calculate 75.12 x 52 / 12 = 325.52 (which us the correct amount not allowing for the fact the father has paid nothing since November).

We cannot see where December, Jan and Feb money is.

If the effective date is 3rd of Jan is that the date they contacted him or does he have other children he pays for?

My friend had this and I can't remember how or the why but I know when she opened a cms case, her ex didn't have to pay for the first few months. Whether it went in the yearly total I'm not sure. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will come along

She contacted CMS via phone in November.

They did their checks/contacted the ex etc. Then she received the award letter which was dated 3rd Jan - so it’s taken them about 6/7 weeks to do their process.

It’s ridiculous if they expect no money to come in for over THREE months. I know they are inept but surely the gov realise the reason parents use CMS is because absent parents choose not to bother paying. Hence the service is needed!

Surely it should be backdated to the day she called them? Or at worst the day they write to her? Why does the absent parent get three months off?

No other children involved on either side.

I'm sorry its a long time since I did accounts on a case. Give them a call they should be able to talk her through the payments and what arrears are due . Sorry I could not be more help