How does Child Maintenance Service work?

[Amy87xo]

Hi - just looking for some advice.

My husband and I separated at the start of the year, we have 4 wonderful children together and I recently brought up the topic of child maintenance with him as he only has them every other weekend due to working away from home during the week and, financially, things are getting tough.

Due to his work schedule it would not be feasible for him to have them overnight during the week and, to be honest, I find them being away every other weekend difficult enough. He was happy to make a payment and has used the online government calculator to work out what he should pay but I am just wondering what would happen if I contacted the child maintenance service to check it is correct - would they work out what the payment should be and then let us go from there ourselves or would they be more heavily involved from the start and then for the duration of the payments?

I don’t want to create any animosity nor do I want to have them involved for the duration in which my ex- husband would be paying maintenance - I simply want them to calculate it for me to ensure it is correct and then to let us go from there ourselves without any further involvement from them - is that possible?

Thanks in advance x

Hi I hope this helps,
my son is now 9 but when I started claiming at 9 months old they were happy for me to try my own agreement with my sons dad, they did a calculation and worked out what he should be paying. They didn’t contact him I’m sure they found out the details they needed. I thought I’d give my sons dad chance to pay on his own accord without involving cms who also have their own £20 fee to set up and thought if he ever didn’t pay or wasn’t consistent then I’d go through them properly but thankfully that’s never been the case

If he’s paying the correct rate there is no downside to using CMS - they will do an annual review (using hmrc info). It means you don’t have to have any discussion and it’s impartial. You would both get sent a decision / calculation and can challenge it. Also it gives you protection if payments are missed as he has to make them up. Yes there’s £20 fee but after that you can just forget about it and don’t have to track if his income goes up.

Sorry to jump in...

So can csa work out what gbey need to pay you before telling them? I have no idea what my ex earns as he does lots of overtime.

CMS will use earnings info from HMRC to decide how much but I think they only do it annually. They won't come up with a fluctuating % for the employer to use, which for someone who does loads of overtime would actually be more appropriate.

Also they charge a service fee to the NRP so if the calculations is £100, he can either pay you £100 or have £120 taken from his wages of which you'll receive £96. So there is absolutely a benefit to doing it yourself as long as he can be trusted to keep you updated on pay rises etc.

If you have enough information you can use the online calculator to get the figures without submitting an application. There is no longer a £20 fee (I put mine through at the end of last year). They will review it annually but seem to rely on contact from both parties for challenges/reconsideration. Fortunately XH is PAYE and has paid on time, I'd imagine it's a nightmare if not. I'd asked for months to agree a figure but was getting nowhere.

Can I ask cms to find out what I'm entitled to without him knowing I've asked?

You can use the online calculator but he'll be told about any application as he'll need to submit various details for cms to make a decision.

Cms checks earnings through HMRC, it'll be reviewed yearly and changed if needed. It'll be less if he has them overnight, and also if he goes on to have another child of his own it would be reduced

Go onto the gov. Website and it'll give you an indication of what he should be paying you to support your children. Present him with that figure x don’t struggle, he needs to pay you support

That's rhe issue. I dont know what he earns or what overtime he does