Why is Child Maintenance Service so s**t

[carmenitapink]

Why doesn't the CMS pursue men who refuse to pay for their kids in the same way HMRC relentlessly chases for tax?!

In practice isn't it all out of the same bucket as the government often has to support single women more (who are then unfairly demonised) due to men shirking their responsibilities.

Why aren't men who refuse to pay (or hide income) investigated and charged like tax evasion is handled or at least affect their credit score.

Also women who are owed child maintenance and have these debts written off by CMS should at the minimum receive a tax refund for this amount if CMS are too lazy to do their job.

While it isn't reflective of my personal situation, reading stories on Mumsnet makes me so annoyed for women and kids left in this situation!!

Good point

You are assuming it's only men who are NRP that don't pay what they should, I can assure you women are just as bad. We have had sole custody of DP's children for several years now, mother not interested in them. She only works part-time even though she no longer has caring responsibility and gets it topped up with UC/PIP having somehow managed to wangle limited capacity to work. She is asked to pay a pittance by the cms but she ignores it, pays £5 a week if she feels like it and constantly lies to the cms. She is a disgrace. I agree the system is shockingly flawed.

Lack of funding, lack of staff, probably.

Well I just got a text the other day to say that my exes calculation is £6.72 a week, for four children, I mean what’s the point in that? There’s no point even keeping the claim open cms is a waste of time for some of us. I don’t need £6

My son is 3.5 now and his dad hasn’t paid anything for my son and has no contact with him too. He also moves to one job to the next to avoid paying and then claims benefits so he don’t have to pay a small amount even tho he doesn’t pay anything. He owes so much now but I ain’t holding me breath that ill get any of it for my son. It’s just a joke how these mums/dads. Don’t have the decency to provide for there sons/daughters

I completely agree with you op.

I know it’s simplistic. But it shouldn’t be that hard to get the money in most cases. It’s really hard to hide cash now, everything is electronic.
if the resident parent refused to support their child it would be neglect, so why is it ok for non resident

@SpinningFloppa that is about £350 over a year tho? I know its a paltry sum and insulting but honestly I would claim it, stick it in a saver acct and when your kids are older, take them for a meal/ holiday? Or just split by 4, give it to them as a leaving home present and just say 'this few hundred quid each is the sum total of what your feckless father provided for you - go do something fun with it'?

I made a complaint via my MP and they suddenly managed to get a DOE order put in place.

The problem is my ex jobhops. It takes a couple of months for HMRC to arrest his earnings with every new job so the payments are erratic. I got a letter the other day saying my new payment is 0 because he is on benefits. I can't see how that is true since he is definitely working and living with a partner who works but I don't have the energy to chase it up.

There simply isn't the political will to make NRPs pay. When groups like families need fathers protest then people listen but when it comes to children being denied support then nobody seems to care.

It is incredibly hard to get PIP. I have a genuine disability and still cannot get it. If she's been awarded limited capability for work and PIP she has genuine reasons and supporting evidence. So what your suggesting, that she's swindling the system is uncalled for. However, she should be paying the £5 and if she's not all you need to do is tell them and it directly gets taken out of her benefits

No I can do that without his money. £350 a year split between 4 kids is still rubbish and less than £100 per child a year, I know people getting £350 (or more) a month for one child so I’m never going to view it as a good amount. Definitely time to close it he can keep his £6.72

You have clearly never dealt with the CMS if you think it's this easy and straightforward! Maybe if you are dealing with an honest NRP but not for those with an ex who lies through their teeth. She is also supposed to pay an awful lot more than £5 based on her income. I'm sorry you can't get PIP if you have a genuine disability, however I can assure you this lady is playing the system and presumably taking money that should be going to those that need it. She has no interest in supporting her children either financially or in any emotional capacity. I'm not even going to go into the abuse that she has subjected them to.

Because it’s an issue that mainly effects women and the government/politicians don’t really care about women. You only have to look at women’s healthcare to see that. It’s majorly shit though

True

Exactly. It's convenient for the government to have people demonise single mothers and stereotype them as feckless, promiscuous benefit scroungers who drag up obese ASBO kids. It means that those people don't ask why TF the government isn't doing its job and reducing inequality in its multiple guises.

My exH pays £10 and some shrapnel per month. Only cos the CMS makes him, mind you. They haven't done anything about the thousands he owes in arrears though.

Hiya,

wondering if anyone who has been through something similar could give me some advice? My son is 6 months old and when me and his dad split he wasn’t really bothering with our son. So I put a claim into CSA so he could at least contribute a little bit. Since me doing this he has all of a sudden said he doesn’t think our son is his and he wanted a DNA test which we have done through Child Maintenace. I’m presuming he’s doing this to try and delay paying. I took my son to the doctors 10 days ago and haven’t heard anything yet. Has anyone else had a DNA test done through CSA and could tell me how long the results take to come back please? I’m 100% certain his dad is his dad as there’s no possibility of our son being anyone else’s but I’m sick of the grief and everyone believing his dad isn’t his dad. I also want him to step up and be there for our son yet he won’t do it “without knowing for sure our son is his”. Baring in mind our son is his actual double! Any advice will help massively or even just an opinion on the situation as I’m not entirely sure why he would believe our son isn’t his. He was there through my whole pregnancy, at our sons birth, he’s on the birth certificate and until we split up when my son was about 3 months he was there every single day and had always said he was his dad. As I said I presume it’s to get out of paying CSA and having to make time to see him but as frustrating as it is I just want the best for my son and I don’t want him to grow up without a dad.

I'm a paying dad and paying a fortune and still have my kids with me 15% of the time as they go to school from the other parents house. I find using the service not unlike the Mafia, its incredibly poorly administered. Fronted by ill informed, poorly empowered and frankly un interested people that working with them is impossible. It must be one of the worst jobs in gov today. The CMA are incredibly underfunded, poorly structured and have such little digital investment in their system. Fancy removing the digital messaging system so I have to either call (wait and hour min) or send a physical letter to Wolverhampton. Its a complete joke. The system is designed around self employed people who annually submit their income to HMRC. My Salary varies a lot. When they calculate the amount, when it suits them they can send wildly different assessments within 4 weeks. It seems that both sides of the parent role are hindered by this crappy and poorly designed service. my payments are more like spousal maintenance, where the recipient is furnishing a brand new kitchen and extension. I want to have a life with my kids.. but aside from that, there is a need for a 3rd party to make this service better. CMA is a cost centre for gov and I'm sure Rishi Sunak, directors of DWP/HMRC treat this as an annoying tick on their ankle.. Certainly seems that way. Useless!!! but lets make sure a new law is passed on cigarettes or undoing a european law for straight cucumbers.. My tax goes to the wrong places in government.. If they provide this service, make sure it fucking works !

Yup, this. It's an issue that overwhelmingly affects only women and children. And takes money from men. Which men don't like. So no one bothers putting effective measures into place.

I have 4 young children and their mother relieved £200 every week from me and still reported me to child maintenance and lied and child maintenance sent me a letter backdating maintenance for my 4 children and demanded over £13000 but now the boot is on the other foot and I have full custody and mum hasn't paid a penny towards the kids for 3 years and was still claiming child benefit for 18 months while the kids lived with me, I literally had to fight tooth and nail to get child benefit and now I've claimed child maintenance and I've just been told I will receive £6.72 per week for 4 children from mother what an absolute disgrace that's less than £2 per child per week and quess what mother doesn't have to pay ANY backdated payments and I won't receive my 1st £28 per month for over 2 months. Absolutely disgusting the way I way I was treated and what I was expected to pay compared to my ex partner it's absolute disgrace talk about all for woman and the men get treated like muck and its the kids who will suffer

What a load of rubbish read about my circumstances below that is the reality of things. Any decent man would pay maintenance of there own back for there children but it's not always the men my money grabbing ex is a woman and she's cheat me her own children and the system out of thousands with no repercussions or accountability and the women get away with it. Obviously not all woman are like that bit not all men are like what you say, some of us are good men who want to provide for our children like me paying my ex £200 straight in to her bank every Friday for my 4 kids but that wasn't enough so she reported me to child maintenance but now the tables have turned she refused a measly £100 per month that I asked her for an she isn't happy she's got to pay £28 per month now for 4 young children. Lovely woman she is. So us men arnt all bad there's a lot of evil women out there too!

The debtors (mostly men) are defrauding individuals (mostly women).
The debtors are not defrauding the government.

FREE IDEA FOR POLITICIANS AND MEDIA:
CMS should be treated as a tax, included in a PAYE code. The amount deducted can be transferred to the resident parent, either as a cash payment to their bank account or as a tax credit, again through a PAYE code.

It is absolutely possible. FFS, if we can invent the internet and jet engines, this is a doddle.

Incidentally, the best people to do this would be the payroll department of international firm of consultants or an investment bank like PwC, EY, HSBC etc. Please note - not the consultants or the bank. Just hire their payroll department. They manage far more complicated stuff than this.

Because they don't have enough staff to keep up with people who keep on having kids with anyone who looks at them twice and takes no responsibilty for their choices of who to have kids with?

Not the childrens fault but teaching brains in school may help, not they should have too

I agree that’s derisory but I’d take it and put it in premium bonds. It’s £350 a year.

I get nothing from cms as he is self employed and doesn't declare his earnings so apparently earns less then £5 a week. Drives a nice car etc so definitely earns more than that. Reported him for tax evasion but nothing done. They are awful. Still owed £400 odd for the last 12 years but doubt il ever see it.

HMRC should certainly be doing a full tax investigation on these guys claiming to be self employed with a low income, yet apparently with a nice lifestyle.

It should also work like the system for elderly care, where if there has been deliberate spending or any sudden income change they can go back several years and they are still liable to pay. To remove any incentive to hide income or transfer assets to someone else.