Ex-partner hiding income to reduce child maintenance

[didyousaysomething]

Does anyone have experience of this and what to do?
He earns £130k a year and has stated he earns £9k, so he only has to pay £20 a week for our two children (he has them 5 nights out of 14 - I earn £25k a year). He has a private limited company - he had a different one that he dissolved during the separation and then started a new one. While we were together his freelance and salaried work was paid to his company and he paid himself dividends. He also paid huge amounts into pensions to reduce his income. I don't know who he works for now or how he has anything set up but I know that he is extremely canny when it comes to money. He has just had a second mortgage approved to buy me out of the shared house - only took 10 months of lawyers to get him to agree!! - and the mortgage while I was there was £1200/month, which kind of indicates that he can't be on such a low income.
I have reported it via the CMS, who I went through with the claim as, obviously, things are very acrimonious. I am trying to find evidence to bolster this report but I have no access to any of his docs. Context is: we weren't married; history of financial abuse (among other things); took 2.5years to get me and the kids out of the shared home because he blocked every attempt and I had to make myself financially independent to afford rent (hooray me).
Any advice?? Thank you!

1. Application for Variation

You (the receiving parent) would apply for a variation of the maintenance calculation. You need to tell CMS that you believe the paying parent’s lifestyle suggests they have more income or assets than they have declared.

Examples CMS might accept:

• Expensive holidays
• New cars
• Private school fees
• Expensive property
• Lavish spending that doesn’t match declared income

2. Providing Evidence

CMS will usually ask you to provide any evidence you have.
Even if you don’t have formal evidence (like bank statements), you should give specific examples:

• Approximate dates and details of purchases
• Social media posts showing luxury lifestyle
• Observations about assets they hold (properties, vehicles)
• Any admissions they’ve made about income

CMS can then use their powers to investigate further by checking:

• HMRC (tax records)
• DVLA (vehicle ownership)
• Land Registry (property ownership)
• Credit agencies for financial information

3. Investigation

If CMS think there’s enough reason, they can launch an investigation into the paying parent’s finances.
They may:

• Ask the paying parent for additional documentation
• Cross-reference data with HMRC and other agencies

If they find undeclared income or assets, they can adjust the maintenance calculation accordingly.

4. Possible Outcomes

• If CMS finds inconsistencies, they will increase the maintenance calculation based on an adjusted assumed income.
• If CMS finds no inconsistencies, the calculation stays the same.

Important Points:

• Burden of proof: You don’t need to prove the full financial situation, but you need to give CMS a credible reason to investigate.
• Time: It can be a slow process (sometimes several months).
• Cost: If you’re using the CMS Collect & Pay service, there’s already a fee, but asking for a variation itself usually doesn’t cost extra.
• Ongoing monitoring: If things change again later, you can request further reviews.

Hope this helps

No personal experience, but I wonder whether a forensic accountant might be useful? Though this would cost quite a lot.

You can go on Companies House and look for him to see if he has any current Directorships. Current companies will be listed and you can get the accounts too as they should be filed every year. Depending on size of business, they may be abbreviated, but it will give you a rough idea.

Thank you all so much that is all so helpful. The breakdown of info to support the variation really helped me put together whatever I could think of.
He dissolved his PLC a year ago and immediately established a new one; I suspect in preparation for this CM issue, because he has not needed to have a PLC for many years (as he had been employed). No accounts are filed on the companies house page for the new company.
In any case he's very very canny so I suspect he's found a way of covering his tracks, but I will do what I can, hopefully it will be enough that his monthly outgoings will be almost as much as what he claims he is earning in a year. And I'll keep the forensic accountant idea as a back up option in case the CMS can't find any discrepancies.
Thanks!

I was also going to suggest this. The accounts are published online so you can get details of dividends paid and salary/fees paid to him by previous company.

Why has he started a new company, did the old company have any debts that he’s tried to avoid paying? Is he avoiding paying other people, taxes too? That might be useful context e.g. history of avoiding financial responsibilities. If he’s avoided paying tax you could inform HMRC.

The mortgage application would have a more realistic earnings figure. If HMRC investigate him they might be able to request that

How did he get accepted for a mortgage? I was self employed and it took me 3 years of self assessments to get one. I tried every year for the 3 years and each one told it wasn't enough. It wasn't easy, so I doubt with 9k he would've got one. Not sure just my experience, I tried numerous different mortgage companies/banks too. Also I'm guessing when you say he claims to earn 9k is that through HMRC or CMS? Because CMS do check with HMRC, my partner pays £150 a month CMS, he's self employed and earns an average wage and they review it yearly x

Sounds like he has started a new limited company to avoid his annual accounts being shown online. It can take anything from 18 months to 2 years for your first reporting year to be published.

By then I suspect he will have just created a new company and repeat the cycle.

It costs like £30 or something to register a new company on CH.

There's other things he could do such as change the reporting period from say March to December that would buy him another 9 months.

It sounds like all your hopes are pinned on the lifestyle not matching £9k a year line of enquiry.