Child support

[namechange2234]

Posting here for traffic and have asked for the one in legal to be removed.

So ex husband has always been financially abusive and claimed if we were to break up he would not be paying for the children.

Fast forward 2 years, he has been paying weekly albeit less than the CMS suggested amount. CMS have been chasing up the arrears, he has now altered his earnings (self employed) to make it appear he makes £5000 per year from £35000 last year to avoid maintenance payments. What can I do? He seems to think he is perfectly reasonable. CMS are referring it to their investigation team as it is such a drop.

The advantage of being self employed is that you can write nearly all your expenses off against tax liability, thus having a much smaller income.

Eg you or I would pay travel costs associated with getting to work - for the SE individual this is an off set against tax burden.

There is nothing you can do. If he's chosen to go SE.

Inland Revenue may want to take a closer look but provided it is receipted and documented, then there's very little that can be done. I have acquaintances that run large building firms or are plumbers, all on incredible amounts of money, near to and over 6 figure incomes - but absolutely everything in their life is off set as legitimate business cost - that's phones, laptops, cars, vans, insurances, petrol, clothes, eating out, tools, equipment, "wife" salaries etc

Couldn't they look at his lifestyle and see that it doesn't tally up with his "salary"?

CMS must be suspicious though if they have chosen to investigate it?

One of my friends has and is going through the same thing. I wouldn't expect it to be a quick outcome she's been waiting several years now. He pays £7 a week I think. Lives life like the rich and famous. Several holidays a year, cars, properties etc

@toddle is your friend me lol. It's horrible. I cannot get my head around how someone can and would do this to their own child, who they say is "their world". Awful.

There must be more advice mumsnet ?

Sorry no. You're essentially not going to get far as PPs have said. Have a look at the Gingerbread campaign around self employed maintenance- at least they tried I suppose. The CMS are just awful. It should be a crime punishable with jail time to not support your children like it is in the USA

Never heard of them. Will have a look. It's terrible there is even a way around child maintenance? I'll probably write to my local MP, not that that will help much.

Write to them anyway. I did. My ex is a non payer who just quits jobs to work cash in hand to avoid maintenance which is obv different to your situation but utterly frustrating. As a single parent I totally recommend getting involved with Gingerbread- it gave me an outlet

@nauseous5000 Thankyou. It's nice to speak to someone experiencing it.

@namechange2234 yes and no. I stopped fighting years ago as otherwise he'd just not return DD after contact and say I could pay him instead. No issues with paying if she normally lived with him but cruel to keep a child away from their RP and life 300 miles away. Haven't had a penny in 5.5 years now. I'm v fortunate tho that I can support my 1 DD on my average salary in a cheapish city, but I won't lie that it still rankles that DD would rather spend time with dad cos he's fun and takes her to theme parks etc

@namechange2234 pls feel free to DM if you want to discuss/ offload tho

How is he self employed? Sole trader or via a Ltd company? If it's the latter there's plenty you can do, if it's the former a CMS investigation (which can take a long time) is your only real option.

@bronze a sole trader.

Any advice is welcome from anyone. There are plenty women in my position and I want to help them too!!

That's a shame. If he was Ltd you could look up the company on companies House website & download the accounts (as they're public documents). Benefits & dividends are listed on there as well as the basic wage they pay themselves. The CMS will accept this as evidence of 'true' income & recalculate accordingly. You can also see if they're diverting income via family or new partner & it can be used as evidence of income if the case goes to tribunal over amount of earnings, or evasion evidence if it goes to magistrates court for non payment (which happens if recovery action fails after a Liability Order is granted).