Hi, I would really appreciate some advice. I am a single mother of an 8 month old DD. As my ex hasn't been paying anything towards our child and refused to go with a private family arrangement, I, upon his request, contacted the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) so that maintenance could be arranged via them. I agreed with Direct pay, where my ex would pay me direct, as opposed to collect and pay, where CMS collects the payments, as I wanted to avoid the fees for both myself and my ex (him 20% and me 4%). When I spoke to CMS about it initially, I was told that, as my ex had a son with his ex wife, whom he was paying maintenance for via the CSA, since the CSA is closing down, they needed to transfer the existing case for his son, through to Child Maintenance service and I had to wait until that was done before I could receive any payments. Two months after my original application, I was contacted by CMS confirming the amount of the payments and that the payments were due to start effective 1 March. I sent my ex my bank details, via CMS which he received, but he has not set up a standing order yet, claiming that they still haven't transferred the case for his son through to the CMS. Now, surely if that was the case, CMS would not have written to me confirming the amount of money I shall receive and the start date of the payments? I'm wondering if he's lying about it, to try to delay making payments as long as possible. Our child was born in July last year and I am really struggling financially as I am on maternity leave and on zero pay. Also, even though he has paid nothing since our child was born, the CMS are only backdating payments to January 2016.
I'm really worried about this as I am seriously struggling financially.
I wonder if anyone can advise?
Thank you.