Subject: Millionaire father pays no child maintenance to his children
After one year of struggling with my ex through the CMS appeal system, I am at the point when I am about to give up, I wonder if anyone else has any alternative avenues to suggest or organisation that may help to move from the deadlock.
Or if any of who have decided to Appeal to the Independent Tribunal and what is their experience.
In brief. After a very acrimonious separation I decided to settle in Court for a lot less than what the judge had suggested to put an end to the money draining and for the children sake and also as my ex was determined to spend all in lawyers (he probably had an insurance rather doing what the judge asked him to, despite being told in Court that if the proceedings would reach the last stage it would have been a hearing concentrating on his non disclosure ).
My barrister suggested to defer to the CMS the decision on CM, which she guaranteed would be 1,200 pounds per month according to his income tax return. Little I knew.
Shortly after, my ex volunteered to be made redundant and despite living in Knightsbridge and literally being a millionaire with accounts in Switzerland the US and Brasil I received a letter saying he did not have to give me ANYTHING, as he declared a gross weekly income of less than 7 pounds !
I learned about the variation and loaded info on his accounts abroad, as well as his lifestyle, stellar service charges, private school fees and huge monthly spending. When I say huge I mean up to 6k per month in online porn and god knows how much in escorts, plus fine dining, clothing etc. Hi spending just on himself was over 10k monthly before separation.
After he left his job, a year ago, I found on my 13 years old daughter's phone text messages (leaked from the family iCloud apparently) of him texting a pimp in prime west London escort agencies for services going from 600 to 2,000 per hour.... :(
He can do what he wants with his life I do not care, but A) he does not behave in such a reckless way so that his daughter can see it and B) if he earns less than 7 pounds and has no money for CM he should not have money to pay this ... right ?
I sent all of this to the CMS as part of the appeal variation and after messing me about for over a year - by backtracking their decision and then give the same reply, I was told my appeal was rejected for lack of evidence. Full stop.
I had to file a right of access request and ask my MP to follow up on it as they did not even acknowledged it.
When I finally got all info held in my name lots of it was redacted like a spy document ! What could be seen in the decision was yes the PP (paying parents has assets but the evidence provided is not admissible as protected by GDPR legislation, ( I found out by asking around this meant that as it was disclosed in civil proceedings during the separation hearings, hence for not for "public" viewing) !
And given that it was from a year ago it is clear that my ex assets, maybe in flux and he may have considerably less ! ) I also received a very threatening call from a CMS advisor, who tried too dissuade me to continue with my Appeal to the Independent Tribunal saying it is a long draining process and there is absolutely no guarantee the Courts will decide differently, when I said I intended to pursue it anyway, she told me her intention was to propose to send all my documents to the internal CMS Financial Investigation Unit, however that there was no guarantee they would even take the case up and that by doing this I would miss my opportunity to continue with the Independent Tribunal Avenue.
I asked to think about it and ask for advice she said no, so I said ok. I went back to the MP describing how threatened I felt and the case worker said it is not in their remit nor expertise to advise any further :((((((
I am not working and not making money, as despite trying, I am in my late 50s and left my employment years ago to look after the children. I am trying to work as a sole trader and applied for jobs but this is stressful and came to lots of refusal... so far.
I am now dreading going into another winter and massive gas bills, I have some savings supposed to be for my retirement but you know how quick these go in London.
Everyone is talking about the loopholes but NO ONE is helping - hiring a lawyer would mean I would pay more in legal fees than what will get as maintenance IF I was successful. I will call Ginger Bread again today, but they only seem to be collecting datas but provide no help on individual cases - I tried rights of women - advocates nothing...
I am so tired ...should I just give up and concentrate fully on rebuilding my life ? It feels such an injustice and this is something which should also be in the interest of the general public, my son is turning 18 this week and will soon be off to uni. my daughter is still 13...
I would appreciate any help or ideas anyone is able to share. Thanks
thread title tweaked by MNHQ