re ex reporting me to social services

[Spenser05]

It has been obvious to me that my ex has been underpaying child maintenance. i phoned them numerous times but nothing happened. in desperation i wrote a letter. he now has to pay a lot more monthly. in his spite he has reported me to social services as neglecting the children and not looking after them. i am worried because i do leave them home alone when i work. which is 9 to 5 monday to friday. i have a friend they can go to 3 mins away and can be home in 15mins. the children are 13 and 14. whats the best way to handle ss advice please

My ex pulled the same bullshit - they're required to "follow up" but generally they're pretty wise to malicious complaints.

Don't stress, be honest, I very much doubt you have anything to worry about.

13 and 14 is fine for that; social services first question to your ex will be what is he doing to provide childcare during that time if he’s so worried. I suspect nothing.

Totally agree - by the third time my ex tried it they notified him there were procedures they could follow that could lead to them taking him to court if he continued to make clearly unfounded claims as it is a waste of their time and resources. He packed it in then!

I believe it may be an offence to make such a false report?

It could if he's being a pain even work in your favour - the 1st report happened when we were still divorcing and sorting contact etc and he was playing silly buggers with this - the social worker had a conversation with him about the effect THIS was having on dd which led to a temporary improvement.

Play it canny but honest

With the workload of horrifying actual abuse and neglect the SS have to deal with, I can guarantee they won't give a shit. And rightly so.

Your ex is a time wasting moron.

They are 13 and 14 and your ex is an idiot. Social services won't do anything. Infact, they will probably ask him if he is so concerned, why doesn't he provide care in that time

Rest assured ..your fine .

Ss dgaf about 13/14 year olds in the house for an hour or so on an afternoon.

The kind of neglect ss might start to take an interest in would involve

• no beds
• no food in the house (like, nothing. Don't worry if you ran out of bread and milk that morning)
• drugs lying around
• constant stream of strangers through the home
• parent missing for days/weeks
• dangerously unhygienic, e. g. dog faeces in the rooms

And even in cases of the above, they'd start by trying to work with the parents.

So be honest with them - let them in, have a chat, tell them your ex is currently angry with you over maintenance and you believe it to be a vexatious allegation. They probably won't stay long.