Applying for child maintenance

[10greenapples]

I have 3 children with me ex, they are 7, 3 and 10 weeks, we split just before I found out I was pregnant with the youngest. he was awful through my pregnancy and decided he wanted nothing to do with any of the children if I decided to continue with the pregnancy. Which he has stuck to and hasn't seen them in 8 months, and never seen the baby. The thing is I don't receive tax credits for the youngest as she was born after the cut off point. Ex doesn't pay a penny in maintenance and as he gets cash in hand there is nothing they can do. We haven't spoke at all in the last 3 months. Before that he would contact me every month or so but hadn't seen the children. I'm struggling to get by and I don't see why he should get off Scott free. I'm wondering if he has started working in the last few months, but I am not sure. Would it be a waste of time contacting them? Since I have to pay now to open a case aswell.

if he is slf employed as the last cms worker said to me you are essentially screwed!

He has a house and he rents out rooms in his house, that's how he gets money.

by the sounds of it you can try but hes pretty untouchable by the cms :(

I'd talk to cms. If he has a provable income - rent a room would (or should) be on his tax return so would be.

Put in your application and when he comes back and says he doesn't have an income apply for a variation due to the income he received from his properties.

I would also call tax man and report him as I bet he is not declaring it !

I thought this but when I told them it was a housing association house they told me that it was illegal to rent out rooms if it's ha? And just to report him but he will know it's me so don't feel comfortable doing that.

Well he's denying his children financial support so I wouldn't feel too bad about reporting him!

He is violent so I don't want to cause trouble for myself

CMS can't help unless his income is declared properly and that is where the income tax department of HMRC comes in. You can report him anonymously re his cash in hand. They will then chase him for a correct return. If he cooperates he won't be in too much trouble but he will pay a penalty. When it's been sorted, you can go back to CMS. Any maintenance you get won't affect your tax credits.

Think I will just have to leave it then as he already said if anyone ever reported him he will know it's me because "no one else would do it"

He wouldn't need to know that the investigation had arisen from a report from a member of the public. HMRC gets its info from all sorts of sources. Someone I know was caught because high credit/debit card expenditure did not tally with the paltry sum he claimed to have earned. A woman in my home town was caught out failing to declare rental income because land registry records had showed she owned a second property.

I'd stick a claim in. Presumably if he has 'no income' he is claiming benefits. In which case the kids are entitled to a minimum payment -£5 a week or something. I'd do that just to make the point that you won't allow him to get away with not paying anything.
Appreciate your concerns about rocking a violent boat, but you have the choice to challenge later if a claim is recorded.

He doesn't claim any benefits.

Then stick a claim in and let them figure it out. Noone can live on nothing.

Last time they told me he could be living off a partner (which I know he isn't, but yeh I think I will put a claim in it's worth a they.