How can I make ex pay

[MaintenanceQ]

How can I get my ex to pay maintenance? He doesn’t see our children but it makes me more mad that he refuses to pay anything for them. Not because I’m money orientated but because I believe if you don’t want to see your kids the least you can do is pay for them. I don’t want to force anyone into my children’s lives that doesn’t want to be there. So how can I finally get maintenance payments from him? I’m with cms but he hasn’t paid a penny in 2 years as he is on benefits and has debts (this means they don’t have to pay) I don’t believe he will ever intend to work whilst he will have to pay. He hasn’t worked since we split 8 years ago. I know he is earning on the side but I have no proof, is there anything I can do? I think I would be feeling a lot less bitter.

Unless you can get proof and shop him to HMRC then there's not much you can do.

If he clearly living beyond his (apparently) means? Luxury holidays, fancy cars etc? I think there is a term for this were you can get CMS to reconsider based on lifestyle but I think it's a hard slog.

I do think if I could afford such a thing I would be tempted to get a private investigator on the case. It would be very satisfying to catch him out.

Unfortunately if no earning via HMRC then he doesn’t have to pay. If you had proof he was working alongside then you can report that to HMRC, they will investigate and if they find evidence then he would have to pay but that’s a hard battle to fight and rarely won if it’s all on the sly. Worth a try though.

Thanks both if I can’t do anything about it I’m going to cancel my claim so need to know as one last attempt really. He is earning but not declaring it. Only admits verbally