Child Maintenance Agency

[JK91]

Hi all,

Needing some help/advice/other stories about the Child Maintenance Agency (CMA).

Presently I'm supposed to receive £243 per month from my ex for our daughter.

I went through the CMA Collect and Pay services last October and since then I've received one £131 "Partial Payment" in November and one £139 "Partial Payment" February. He is already over £1200 in arrears.

So if anyone can help please, my questions are;

What is a "Partial Payment"?
Why aren't I receiving the full amount?
Why is it all taking so long?
Will I get the arrears?

CMA are very vague in what they say to you and I don't understand them at all, I'm currently on sick from my job with depression, so really need the money.

Any help is greatly appreciated, I just feel so fed up with it all, I thought Collect & Pay would mean I actually got some maintenance 😫

Partial payment is what it says. He is not paying the full amount.
If he doesn't pay the full amount. How are they going to pay you the full amount?
If he doesn't pay, they will eventually move him to Detachment of Earnings where the money is collected directly from his employer before he is paid.
You will get the arrears if he has a job where they can collect it, or money somewhere.

Collect and Pay is just a standing order he set sup to pay the CMS. If he doesn't pay, they need to move it to the next step (DOE)

Thank you for your reply, I have no clue how it all works and thought that I was getting paid from his employer by using the C&P! I thought that is why I paid a percentage. We did direct pay, but after fobbing me off the vast majority of the time with £15.15 per month when he's earning £37000 per year, I asked CMA to do the next step.

This is a rhetorical question, but how the hell can he get away with it. Surely they see what's going on, and that he really just takes the p**s.

As he hasn't paid, you need to contact CMS again and ask for the money to be taken directly from his salary (DOE). They are not too proactive and if your children need the money, you need to keep pressuring them. That will take several months though. If he resigns, you will need to start the process again. It is a long process.

Please also note that if they cannot collect it from the employer for whatever reason, they are not going to pay you. They just serve as an intermediary (a very expensive one) for payments.

I'll give them a call on Monday and ask them to explain it all to me again now I know a bit more about the process. Thank you for your time and help.

It saddens me that some parents choose not to pay for their child/children, whilst the other parent slogs their guts out day in day out. One of the reasons why I'm on the sick from my current job, I'm just so burnt out mentally and physically.

Thanks again 😊

No worries. The system is very complicated. My only advice is to keep pestering the CMS. If he has a PAYE job, there is not much he can do to avoid payment via DOE.

Sounds like I have a fight on my hands then, I'm sure he works for his friends family business, I'm sure they'll sort something out for him, greatttt!

At the end of the day, our daughter will eventually realise who was there and who wasn't (financially & emotionally).