Child Maintenance and Benefits

[Blupi]

I have recently opened a claim against my ex, it has come back as £7 a week as he is in receipt of ‘certain benefits.’ However, I know he works (self-employed) and is actually charging £100 per hour for his services. He has also posted bragging social media posts about his tax return and how much tax he’s had to pay, alluding to the fact he must have earned a fair amount of income.

I’ve gone back onto the calculator and had a play around with it, and whatever income you put in, if you tick the benefits box it will come up as £7 per week. I even entered in £30k earnings but receiving benefits and it still said £7 per week.

Surely this cannot be correct?? Clearly he is also committing benefit fraud as well.

Anyone been in this situation?

Others will have better advice than I can give you on what to actually do here ... but the first thing to do is screenshot those online brags of his, and gather some evidence he's charging £100/hr

I’ve done that. We’ve also been through family court and he told Cafcass he works as well. So he’s not keeping it a secret. I just don’t understand why the calculator says it is £7 regardless of what you earn if you’re on benefits, that can’t be right.

If he receives disability benefits despite working those are the rules.

So you can earn an unlimited amount but as long as you get disability benefits it is £7 per week?

Not sure
But disability benefits are non means tested so you could be a millionaire and still receive, them if eligible it's not fraud.

I know it’s non means tested, but what I am surprised by is that someone can claim disability benefits - be earning £100 per hour (I estimate he’s getting at a minimum £1000 per week based on his disclosures) - but only have to pay £7 child maintenance because he may be on disability benefits?

I'm.not sure about that but if he's self employed he might not be declaring his earnings?

this is so unfair. I hope there is a way to appeal or go via court instead. I’m assuming you have already asked him for a private arrangement and he’s told you to get lost.

He probably isn’t, but he’s freely disclosing that he’s working and has bragged on social media about his tax return - strange if he’s committing fraud.

The only benefits that affect how much child support can be paid are means tested benefits. So him being in receipt of PIP won't do it. It'll be Universal Credit.

He is either not earning enough to wipe out his UC eligibility, which means he is earning less than the government says he needs to live... Or he is not reporting all his earnings.

If you think he is not reporting his earnings to UC, your first step is to report him for benefit fraud with evidence.

I see. So he could, in theory, be getting £1 per week in UC and the rest be his self-employed earnings, but because he is getting that £1 per week, he only has to pay £7 in child maintenance?

He has always had some scam or fiddle going on, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s getting lots of cash (he actually gave our oldest child £2.5k in cash recently for a flat deposit).

And the people protest on here that there is no such as benefit fraud. Benefit fraud is rampant.

Have you reported him OP. For benefit fraud and tax evasion.

Yes. If he is left even with just 1 penny of UC, he will only pay £7 child benefits.

But he will not be receiving any UC if he is earning loads. Certainly very unlikely if he is earning £1000 a wekk (unless he has children on his claim, high rent on his claim etc... Each persons calculation is individual and unique to them)

Obviously would need to look at his UC claim and his earnings to really know, but with self employed earnings you have to report them to UC every month. It's very easy, even if risky, to simply not report your earnings or report you're earning less than you are. So, that would be my bet as to what's going on if I had to guess, based upon you saying how much he is earning.

He has a partner, also self-employed, and three other children living with him. We live in the SE, so housing costs are high. One of his children with his partner goes to an expensive private school. He has written on social media about how much tax he has to pay. Charging £100 per hour, it mustn’t take many hours per week to exceed UC thresholds anyway, I would have thought?

It just doesn’t add up.

Those rules are ridiculous

I don’t know if he receives disability benefits. Is that actually true if he does?

Is it even worth fighting this? He has always known every scam, every loophole. I was very surprised when it said he only owed £7 per week as his circumstances just don’t seem to support UC entitlement or disability benefits. Obviously I can’t say for sure as I don’t know his exact circumstances.

All I have are the facts that he advertises his services for £100 per hour, talks about how busy he is / how many clients he has online, has made posts online about having to pay lots of tax, one of his children goes to an expensive private school, he’s given our eldest child £2.5k in cash… would that information suffice with the DWP to launch an investigation?

Oh and he’s told our children about his work and client schedule, and there have been occasions he has earned in excess of £1000 per week (he has said, for instance, I have 15 clients this week…)

Regardless, it sounds like if he was claiming disability benefits, it wouldn’t matter what income he was getting from self-employment anyway, I’d still only receive £7 a week.

His partner and her earnings/ outgoings and her children are irrelevant here.

From experience, it's easier for lousy fathers who are self employed to dodge paying a fair share in child maintenance. So it's most likely he's under-declaring. If you have evidence of tax evasion (and benefit fraud), report him to HMRC.

I know her earnings are irrelevant to any money I may receive. I do think the context is relevant. She’s self-employed (as a hairdresser), he’s self-employed, they clearly have a joint UC claim… or they’re claiming not to live together… and they send one of their shared DC to private school…

The circumstances don’t add up, is what I am saying.

I'm pretty sure disability benefits don't count as benefits for CMS purposes.

What stage are you at with CMS? If he is employed via his own ltd company you need to ask for variation and then mandatory reconsideration to consider unearned income and/or diversion of income. They almost always reject is then it can go to tribunal.

If only self employed and not a limited company you can ask the Independent Case Examiner to get involved.

You need to put a mandatory re consideration inti the CMS to and this means they will look at it again

You're getting some incorrect info on here OP. The £7 a week only applies when the paying parent is SOLELY on benefits and not earning any income. He may still qualify for UC if he's declaring low earnings but maintenance should still be calculated on those earnings. Disability benefits are irrelevant and disregarded for his income. So if he is earning and declaring it then it shouldn't be £7. If he's commiting tax evasion fraud then report him to HMRC and ask CMS to investigate. You could submit a change to income stating why you believe he is earning. Might be best to give CMS a call and discuss with an advisor.

You can apply to the family court for a variation