Ask the Government to look at CMS for landlords, inherited wealth and business owners

[fairlyfairtoday]

Hi all,

I’ve started a petition asking the Government to review how the Child Maintenance Service assesses parents who are self-employed or don’t work through PAYE. I’ll add a screenshot of the wording rather than repeat it all here.

At the moment, the practical and emotional burden often falls almost entirely on the resident parent. Particularly if the other parent’s income is complex, irregular, or structured through companies or assets, it can be very hard to get a fair assessment, leaving the resident parent reliant on court cases. That leaves the resident parent plugging the gap, often while already juggling childcare, housing costs and trying to stay attached to the job market.

What feels particularly frustrating is that this isn’t a technical impossibility. HMRC already tracks assets and non-PAYE income for things like income, capital gains tax and inheritance tax. The systems exist, the data exists, and yet single parents are expected to shoulder the shortfall when maintenance doesn’t reflect a parent’s real financial position.

Adequate child maintenance can make a genuine, practical difference. It can be the difference between being able to afford childcare and return to work, rebuilding a sense of independence, progressing a career, and not losing ground in an already unforgiving job market. When maintenance falls short, it’s not just unfair, it can hold families back long-term and push costs onto the taxpayer instead.

This petition isn’t about punishment or assumptions. It’s about fairness, modernising an outdated system, and making sure responsibility is shared properly so children are supported and resident parents aren’t left carrying everything alone.

If this resonates, I’d really appreciate your support. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/751159 or you can just google search for it! The petition is just to ask for a debate, so if you don't agree exactly with my wording, sorry I've done the best I can, but I just want this on the Governments radar.

Any shares would be great. Thank you!!

I’d like to see them tackle malicious and false reporting from so-called ‘RPs’ first, as well as their IT systems which have been proven to make incorrect assessments and create false arrears. Another Horizon scandal in the making, as described in parliament yesterday.

I don’t disagree that CMS has serious problems, including IT failures and cases where people have been wrongly assessed or left fighting errors. Those issues absolutely need addressing.

What this petition is really arguing is that the system itself is outdated and overdue a proper review. The way income is assessed no longer matches the reality of how people earn and hold money today. Since the rules were set, there have been huge leaps in open banking, digital tax reporting, and the way HMRC and other government systems connect income streams and financial data.

Right now, those gaps create loopholes. Some people fall foul of system errors, while others are able to minimise what shows up for CMS despite having significant resources. A modernised framework could help close both ends of that problem by relying less on self-reporting and blunt PAYE-only assumptions, and more on verifiable data that already exists.

A proper review should look at all of this together: accuracy, safeguards against false reporting on all sides, better IT, and assessments that actually reflect real financial positions. Leaving the system as it is helps no one, and it certainly doesn’t protect children or taxpayers.

I'm astounded that this has gained more traction on here. Well done for trying to do something about it.

Thank you! I don't want to spam the board, but I did think a few people would be interested!!!

@fairlyfairtodayid be really interested to talk to you in more detail - do you have an email I can contact you on?

I do agree op but I also think that significant child maintenance payments she be taken into consideration with uc, I know a particular family who get thousands in child maintenance monthly and she get uc plus all the fringe benefits you automatically get with it, of course we wouldn’t know if she didn’t also keep bragging about it! I know the ex as he comes to drop in with the dc sometimes and he’s a lovely involved dad and doesn’t resent the payments he makes (amicable split) at least again in public

@notableexceptioncould you share where you saw the parliament discussions on 16th Dec on this please?

Completely agree. I know someone who gets £1,500 per month in child maintenance and then full UC, council tax discount, housing support on top.

Yanbu
My ex lives a high earner lifestyle but according to CMS he is below the poverty line

I think the reason this changed was that when benefits were reduced to allow for maintenance, it left the resident parent very short if the other parent didn’t pay up, which seems to happen frequently.

It needs to be assessed on a case by case basis. If your ex is employed, CMS will take the money directly from their wages. The woman I know gets the £1.5k via the CMS collect and pay, it comes straight from her exes wages. When you are self-employed claiming UC, you have to put in your earnings every month and it adjusts your UC accordingly. Why can’t the same be done for CMS money? If your ex doesn’t pay one month, or quits their work, or the money doesn’t come via CMS, you tell UC that.

It’s ridiculous that people can be getting that level of support from their ex (which lets be frank, unless you’re children are at private school or some other such privilege, aren’t costing £1.5k a month) and then claim full whack UC on top.

The issue you’re mentioning comes with self-employment earnings, which can be hidden.

The bulk of our income comes via directorships in a limited company. If our mortgage lender had absolutely no difficulty accurately assessing our mortgage affordability by looking at tax assessments and business accounts, the CMS should be able to do it.

i support anything that increases Child support
But it should be taken into account for UC