Reporting Ex to HMRC, DWP and Child Maintenance?

[ChildMaintain]

2 DC. Just got Child Maintenance’s annual assessment - they are saying ex only needs to pay £7 per week as he’s in receipt of benefits.

I have proof that they are self-employed (Personal Trainer) and have been for some time. The proof includes his own website which advertises weekly classes, lists his phone number / email address and even has a photo of him! Approximately half of the classes he does are online and people book through an online system, also paying him online… so it’s not a case of him going completely cash in hand to avoid declaring it or it going into a bank account.

I don’t know how he’s getting away with it, unless he is just blatantly lying to HMRC and Child Maintenance or the money is going into someone else’s account.

WIBU to report him to everyone and everything? I can easily forward his website and other advertisements to them. Has anyone at all had any success in getting someone self-employed to pay a reasonable amount or do we always get screwed over? Every thread I read seems to suggest if they are self-employed you have no chance!

I’d report it. CMS might not care but the others might.

Most offenders are not detected by the Police etc they are dobbed in by someone they have annoyed

As your ex is about to find out

Dont forget of course that he will be making more money than those trainers who are declaring their income correctly

Might teach him a useful lesson.

BTW at the moment Benefits Fraud investigation leaves a lot to be desired contrary to what the Politicians say

Report to all agencies, HMRC and DWP have an online reporting tool, don't know about CSA but no doubt there's a "contact us" if nothing else. Just don't expect anything to happen quickly. I think most of the online reporting systems are just to gather statistics so that they can decide what "initiatives" to have to target certain kinds of offence via specific task forces - that certainly seems to be how HMRC operate.

Report report report. Take screenshots. If you can, watch available sessions disappear (presumably to clients).

He might not be making much money, and gets universal credit .. might that explain it?

Having a job doesn’t mean he isn’t on benefits. If he isn’t making much self employed, he may get a UC top up

I'd speak with him privately letting him know what you know. He can either pay up what he owes or you set the taxman on him.

Yes report him. It seems crazy that he's claiming benefits and advertising his business online. It might be that he is allowed to do some work and claim certain benefits but let HMRC worry about that. He might have massaged the figures to show he only receives minimum wage.

I would start with the Fraudulent benefit confidential hotline. One step at a time.

I would report to them all in one go - you are more likley to get a result

Perhaps. He is charging £60 per private PT session and £25 per group session. You can hover over the group sessions and see how many people have booked, for example one of the sessions this week has 4 people booked onto it. So he’s not making pennies, it must be at the very minimum a couple hundred a week.

He may be exaggerating his expenses to avoid paying tax and maintenance.

I did the same - his benefits were stopped but I still haven't had a penny of maintenance - not sure if HMRC have done anything.

Who did you report him to? Did CMS actually do anything?

I think it’s completely wrong but if he is self employed it doesn’t mean all the money going through the business is profit. It’s really common for them to pay themselves a low wage (16k) for example and then whack loads through the books as expenses. Thr money he’s earning goes through the business but isn’t his income. Happens a lot with self employed men and child Maintainence

A couple hundred a week wouldn't stop you getting benefits

Surely even if he’s putting through a load of expenses though and paying himself very little, he’d still be paying more than £7? The assessment I received today said his only income is benefits.

Surely you’d be liable for more than £7 though? And a couple hundred a week is being extremely conservative and assuming he is putting through tons of expenses.

I wouldn't report your ex at this stage. Is he having regular contact with the children? If so, what sort of impact do you think it would have on them if their father were to be prosecuted?

How well do you understand his financial affairs? If he's working through a limited company he may not be paying himself very much. That may or may not be reasonable. It's not uncommon to build up financial reserves in a company if you're planning to expand, or to buy equipment.

Reporting him to all and sundry in these circumstances feels a bit vindictive IMO.

You don't actually know how many classes he does in a week though

I have no idea what the breakdown would be but I think it's now just over £900 a month where you stop receiving anything, might even by over £1000

I guess the question is how much per week does someone have to earn before you have to pay more than £7?

So you think he can live on a couple of hundred pound a week AND pay maintenance?

or have I missed something?

Does he work through a company structure. He may be trying to be clever with dividends. For some stupid reason you have to ask CMS to review these

Yanbu to report him. I loathe men who do this and I loathe people that facilitate it

I no longer pay anyone in cash as my ex gets the majority of his income cash in hand now

It's amazing how many men who previously earned a decent living suddenly plummet to below the breadline once they are separated

Going by this, he’s not declaring his earnings at all.