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Can I take ex to small claims court for child maintenance arrears?

10 replies

Shedpod · 26/11/2018 15:06

Ex was paying a small amount of maintenance weekly (£30) for our two year old dd. This was a private arrangement so no CMS involvement.

Payments became extremely irregular over the last three months resulting in him building up arrears of about £200.

He has just told me that he will not be paying this back - this has left me in debt as I have had to put food shops etc. on my credit card. I can’t pay this extra debt off realistically until I go back to full time work once dd goes to school. (I currently work 16 hours a week) so this has really pissed me off - he has a job and whilst it is not highly paid, he should still be contributing something reasonable to his daughter’s expenses.

I have now started a claim with the CMS but I imagine the calculation will be very low as he has two other children and now lives with a woman who has a child so this will all be deducted. I’m anticipating it will be around £10 a week, which won’t help me much but at least will be regular and if he stops paying again they can chase him for it.

As for this £200 arrears, they will not chase that of course as it predates the claim. Can I therefore take him to the small claims court for it, does anyone know? Thank you

OP posts:
ArnoldBee · 26/11/2018 15:08

No and it will cost you more than his arrears anyway.

Shedpod · 26/11/2018 15:10

The gov website says the court fee is £35 for up to £300 claim? And the loser pays this?

OP posts:
MrsStrowman · 26/11/2018 15:20

Did you have a written agreement? Of bit you've got no evidence, even being able to show he paid at other times he could just say they were random payments. This is what the CMS is for

MrsStrowman · 26/11/2018 15:21

If not

Shedpod · 26/11/2018 15:22

Yes the CMS will deal with any future messing around on his part. I do have WhatsApp messages referring to him agreeing to pay £30 a week

OP posts:
Shedpod · 26/11/2018 15:34

Ah ok thank you! Looks like he’ll get away with it then!

OP posts:
MrsStrowman · 26/11/2018 15:41

Sorry OP texts won't cut it, if you'd agreed maintenance via a solicitor as part of a divorce for example you might have a better chance

georgie30rog · 03/07/2022 14:36

Sorry to hear this I've just googled to see what I can do as the paying parent is £8,950 in arrears for the last year and a half all through cms !! He has got a protected earnings in place and currently pays £15 a week for 3 kids that he doesn't see and earns £750 - £1200 a week just purchased a house last month and a 25,000 car !! Do I have nothing I can do IVA?

SamphirethePogoingStickerist · 03/07/2022 14:50

You'd be better off starting a new thread. This one is 4 years old and most people won't notice and will respond to the original poster rather than you.

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