AIBU to worry CMS deductions could push my son into crisis?

[Wokeuptired]

My son split from his ex almost 2 years ago, they have 2 children together and 1 child that my son brought up as his own, their was lots of drama in the relationship and his ex was very demanding, my son paid her maintenence every month and paid for other things for her like the sky bill and some h/p goods, at the end of last year my son took a very serious attempt at taking his own life and he got sectioned, he obviously couldn't work but his ex was still demanding money from him, In March he got his old job back but he had to save for a deposit and furniture as well as pay for prescriptions food fuel to get to work, he was around £200 short each month and we helped him out with that, during this time his ex refused to let him see the children and he has not seen them since January, he had an upcoming court case to get to see them, as the eldest isn't his biologically he had to get a lawyer to help him as he wants her included.
Now the CMS are involved and they have taken £1700 out of his wages this is £700 for the month and £1000 in back pay as they calculated this from December last year, this leaves my son with around £500 after tax, he can't live on £500 as he can't even cover his rent with that, he has just got himself sorted financially but still owes money.
He doesn't know what he can do as he has phoned CMS and they said it has to be that amount and he explained the situation.
He has been to his boss to see what can be done and if he leaves this job he will break his contract with them and they won't employ him again, he can't go part time and then do work on the side to make the money up.
He just can't afford to work, it's ridiculous as he doesn't want to go on benefits as he also pointed out that it won't help his mental health.
What can he do?
I'm just so worried that he is going to try and end his life again as this seems like a no win situation.

This.

The numbers don’t add up at all. Either your son is earning more than he is telling you, or CMS have mucked up the calculations. It will be 15% if he is paying for two children and 19% if three.

Definitely phone up. He needs to pay for his children and personally I think that comes before having any luxuries himself, but this isn’t right.

I would suggest given the urgency that you

1. Appeal the assessment and
2. Make a formal complaint

A month after you have submitted if the CMS have not replied to these you can

1. Ask the Tribunal to direct that the CMS makes a decision on the appeal OR that the Tribunal hears the case
2. Go direct to the Independent Case Examiner

IANAL but are they presuming he has parental responsibility for the 3rd child especially seen as he's trying to get access to custody for her through the courts?

Either way these figures don't make sense.

I am facing some financial uncertainty.
I have a dependent teenage son.
I can't just decide not to support him while I save money for something else (save for a deposit and buy furniture in your son's case).
How has he afforded court and lawyer fees?

I agree those figures just arent true. Either he earns a hell of a lot more than he says or he's lying about the figures.

If he is expected to pay £700 a month (because his salary is way higher than he claims) a backlog of 9k is roughly 13 months on his current salary, but you say hes only been working since March. That obviously doesnt make sense does it?

You need to actually get the true figures. If hes earning he should be contributing to his children, and he should be doing his best to earn to support his DC.

I am sure he can send something to them.
And to Stompythedinosaur
Where have I said or implied that my son doesn't want to pay for his children even the eldest, he has always paid up until December. But I'm not asking about that in asking if cms have it correct and from the replies here they have not so I need to advise my son on how to correct it.

My brother has 4 children to pay for and earns 100k ish a year. He pays £1400 for four of them a month on a higher salary, so there are no way your figures are right- or they have not done them correctly.

Hmm i agree with pp in that while i think £700 would probably be a real cost dor 2 kids it seems very unlikely that uk would charge a person that. Or that he would owe backdated for when not working. However i could see it being the caae abroad.
i mean its about 450 a year for school linches and 1k for bus pass so kids are expensive but i just dont see uk charging that

As others have said, these numbers don’t add up. He would be paying basically nothing for the the backpay for when he was out of work, and on that income he’d be paying a lot less than £700. He’s either not told you his actually income, not told you the correct amount of CM, or his payments have been wrongly calculated in which case he needs to contact them to get it corrected.

Agree the numbers do not stack up. How would he have £9k backlog in short space of time and the

This doesn’t seem right - my friend’s ex became a carer for his dad when he was dying so paid about £5 for a couple of months. When back to work he went back to paying normal amount. There was no backdated payments due.

@Wokeuptired

Either your son is not being truthful, or the CMS have made a huge mistake.

CMS has a 60% protected earnings rule. So if he earns £2100 after tax, then they can't leave him with less than 60% of that. So £1260 would be his. Then the rest is open for child maintenance payments including any outstanding money owed.

£500 a month is a long way off the £1260 he should have.

Plus how did he get arrears? If he was sectioned, did his employer pay his full salary each month??

Here's the info from the government site:
Child Maintenance Payments

Well he sounds like a peach of a father. Isn't he ashamed to share with you that he contributes so little?

If you use the cms calculator for 2 children, he should be paying £372 a month on £28000 and not having any overnight contact,

Thank you for this, as it really doesn't sound right and it's causing him so much stress as before he got ill he paid his ex £600 and sent her money every Saturday for a takeaway then he paid for her car and all the repairs, he even cleaned for her when he had the kids, as he had them at his former home as he was in a bedsit and he couldn't take the children there, but now due to another issue that I can't go into he can't face her so he needs his own home so he can facilitate having his children again and this is what the social worker involved in the case has advised him. So without his job he won't be able to see his children let alone pay for them, he needs to keep his job so he can keep his home and still pay for the children as he wants to but cms are not leaving him enough to live on.
I am going to get a flight this weekend and we will try and help him sort all this out.

Get him to check asap, he shouldn't be paying for his ex's child.

There are calculators online that will show what he should be paying. The figures or facts do not stack up. He needs to push hard with CMS to sort this. You are correct that he cannot afford to house and feed himself on £500, but something is incorrect somewhere. How can he owe £9k if he has been out of work for a large period? Unless this is an old debt from when he was working but not paying?

His children (that HE also created) need food, clothing and housing so it is his responsibility to ensure he pays an adequate amount. The financial obligation of children does not fall to the primary parent, almost always the mother. Men really need to think of this before procreating.

He’ll be under a mental health team at the hospital so soon after a serious suicide attempt. He has a duty to support his children but the summary deduction from wages without taking account of the current circumstances and the effects on him isn’t on.

That’s just CMS. What do you know about any other contributions outside of this to make that statement?

Of course he should contact them again? And if he's been employed rather than self employed he will have all the evidence - payslips, P60 and bank statements.

CMS is notorious for making errors

Parents pushed to breaking point by Child Maintenance Service, BBC told - BBC News

for resident parents and for NRPs

My husband was told he needed to pay £600 a month for one child because they thought he had two jobs at once. They also calculated arrears that were incorrect it took nearly a year to sort out.

Speak to CAB and write to your MP that's how we sorted it in the end.

It’s supposed to be a 50/50 split between the parents. ‘So little’ in this case works out at nearly £3000 a month to look after 4 children. The idea is to support the children not to fleece the father because he’s a high earner. You have no idea what else he may be contributing on top of CMS.

I agree the numbers don't add up. Does he have other debts that he's also paying off and just calls it CM to get your sympathy and understanding?

But having been in a very similar situation with DH, once the CM is calculated it's really hard to change the payments. (Not getting into details as irrelevant here.) I assume the backlog is for the time he's been ill - there should be some leverage there. He needs to appeal.

Fair point, but if you were supporting your children over and above what CMS advise, why would you even go through CMS? Usually people only go through CMS to enforce financial support when a private agreement can't be reached.

Was just about to say probably the fastest way to get this sorted is via the local MP. Something is clearly not right and if he has had time off work unpaid for MH problems clearly CMS are not aware of this or they wouldn’t be calculating back pay across a period when he hasn’t earned.