Absent dad lying to CMA

[Justheretoscroll1]

My best friend has a child with a loser dad who contributes next to nothing (time or money) to his child’s life. She is struggling to get him to pay child support regularly, but when she has tried to involve CMA he has just lied and said he is on benefits (which he isn’t) and they just take this as fact and can’t support further.

Has anyone been in this situation? Or does anyone know how she progresses? Thank you in advance for reading / advice!

You can ask them to check his PAYE. If she informs them he is working they will be able to see it in the system and take it from there.

That’s what she has done but they’ve said if she can’t submit his NI number they can’t validate. She also suspects he is working cash in hand. Do you know of any other way? Thank you for the response x

Something isn't quite adding up here. If she has made an application to CMS then they can trace his national insurance number and confirm that he is on benefits.

Whilst they are famously inept, they will check what he says where they can.

He can't just say "I'm on benefits" and that's that. They will look up his UC claim. So he most likely is on benefits.

If he was on a payroll, or submitting tax returns, they would have access to that, so he's not going to be on PAYE. Most likely should be submitting tax returns.

So, that means he's fiddling his taxes. CMS will only assess based on what the tax office/benefits office tell them. Which plays right into the hands of the cash in hand worker.

Your friend needs to report him to the tax office for tax evasion. When they sort him out and get him reporting his earnings, the CMS bit just tags on to that.

The CMS take ‘real time’ information directly from HMRC on the paying parents salary / benefits received.

CMS get income information from HMRC through a direct data-sharing agreement between the two government departments.

Consent of the paying parent isn’t required.

When a parent applies for CM through the CMS, they do not need the paying parent’s consent for income data to be obtained. The law allows CMS to access this data directly.

CMS uses the paying parent’s NI number or other personal identifiers such as name, date of birth to match with HMRC records.

The CMS pulls data on PAYE earnings, self employment income, benefits received.

Thank you for the responses, I’ve shared them with her x