When to give up on cms

[SpinningFloppa]

Has anyone given up on child maintenance as it’s like fighting a losing battle? My ex has done everything he can to avoid paying maintenance, and has managed this successfully for 5 years. I can count on one hand the amount of times he has paid in 5 years, and those were only benefits payments, as soon as they catch up with him he comes off them again. Any arrears that build get wiped off. When do you give up and accept nothing can be done? I can’t keep fighting for pennies. I often see post on here saying it’s the children money and they are entitled to it and it’s not the mums choice but what about these types of situations when there is nothing to take? Are you suppose to just keep fighting for pennies or give up and move on?

unfortunately it wouldn’t be anywhere near that amount as he is charged the flat rate of £7 per week.

i don’t want to go to the mp I guess I’m worried about looking like a money grabber I don’t expect them to understand and I know some people just think maintenance is used on nights out and getting your nails done! Obviously not the case but I don’t expect the mp to understand.

He is definitely not living off a partner, they just said it’s a possibility which is why they won’t do anything I know he isn’t but they don’t care. I’ve asked them how they think someone is living for 5 years not working or claiming benefits. They told me they would do a liability order but he needed to owe £500 before they could do one, so imagine how long that takes on £7 per week, when it got to £450 he randomly went on benefits so it was stopped, He stayed on benefits for a few months then went off them again. He convinced me to close the case said he would pay me himself, I took the chance as I wasn’t receiving any payments anyway, he then told me he didn’t believe me so won’t pay, and refused to call them to check. Then I ask myself is this all really worth £7 a week? Which we won’t ever see anyway.

I don’t think people realise this is what happens, most of us will never see a penny of the arrears.

He convinced me to close the case said he would pay me himself, I took the chance as I wasn’t receiving any payments anyway, he then told me he didn’t believe me so won’t pay, and refused to call them to check

So actually this is your fault for trusting him then 🙄

No that was years ago, the case is open again he asked me a few years ago to close it I took the chance because he WASNT paying anyway so I thought we could come to an agreement ourselves, he then refused to pay as he “didn’t believe me” so I opened it up again but that was 3/4 years ago.

And just to clarify the case was open again immediately after (I’ve had a
cms case for 5 years) he has refused to pay I was just pointing out that he isn’t willing to pay himself and has been a nightmare to deal with and point blank refuses to pay a single penny. I would not have closed the case if I was getting payments. I wasn’t so I didn’t lose anything.

If you object to that then they have to keep it on the books.

they’ll no longer chase it but they can only wipe it if you don’t argue. They are very sneaky about the letters they send and lots of people don’t realise that they can insist that debt is left to stand.