Child Maintenance

[Nc1234566]

Hi, a family member has been taken to CMS (very bad relationship with ex). Turns out ex gave false information (address/ contact) and said they hadn't had any money from ex at all previously (they had).
Family member has now found out that they have an attachment of earnings of around £600 per month for maintenance and arrears. They are very upset and left without much spare money as they were trying to save to go to court for access (none allowed by ex for months).
My question is are they able to get this amount changed, e.g. Show evidence of bank transfers and of other children at current address which would affect calculations, as family member believes this is now set in stone and they cannot challenge.

Yes

Your relative should go on the CMS site. There is a calculator and more info about how it is calculated and how to challenge this. Obviously it helps if he or she had paid by bank transfer and can show evidence of what was paid.

Thanks @AliceinBunnyland, they said when they phoned the cms they were really unhelpful which made them think there was nothing they can do. Hopefully they can get it sorted so that they pay a fair amount, and eventually get a proper custody arrangement sorted

There are time limits that they must stick to. So they should act promptly.

First thing to do is provide proof of address. The assessment cannot start from a date prior to first contact, so if she gave them the wrong address they should recalculate the date.

Second they need to give CMS full information of all payments made and of all factors that might reduce the assessment such as pension contributions and other relevant children. He should also get them to cancel the deductions from earnings and collection of arrears.

@Nc1234566
First off if this is a family member you need to see the letters have received.

From what you've said it seems that he said he paid before but she said he hadn't. Which meant she has claimed for that time but a claim is only dated from the moment an application is opened.
Also she has to prove and show that he didn't make payment, she would have to wait for CMS to contact him for his side of the story, then she would have to wait for it to happen again, then she could apply for the support to be taken directly from is wage,
This takes a further 8 weeks. Throughout this your family member would be contacted and letters sent to the address he proved not her. Or the only they received from HMRC.

The fact that this family member has other dc living in the home will not change Arrears or previous calculations as they had more than enough opportunity to apply this to the claim.
It can be added to the next month etc.
Also it is a very small amount that will be taken off.
When they got the letter confirming the calculation, or additional debt, ( also can see this in the online website) it tell you how to appeal and I believe it's 28 days. I could be wrong.

The ex has very little control or power over the claim, CMS do not just take their word, they repeatedly contact both parties which is why I suggest looking at the letters properly yourself because the information you gave really doesn't happen like that.
It takes weeks and weeks waiting through each process.

CMS are a nightmare to deal with and from our experience they definitely tend to take the mother’s side.
However you can appeal a decision, details of how to do this are on the letters sent by CMS.
First of all you should be able to raise a complaint directly with CMS, if your family member can provide evidence of payments he has made they can deduct this from the arrears.
With regards to the resident child/children at his address, it is his responsibility to inform CMS of the children he resides with and they’ll only adjust calculations from the date he informs them.
Eg we moved house but I hadn’t updated the address for child benefit, in CMS’s eyes DH wasn’t living with our children (his children) for 12 months and they calculated payments as though he was a single man with no resident children and wouldn’t backdate it.

Your family member needs to be consistent at phoning / writing to CMS, they’re taking very few phone calls at the moment, a lot of enquiries need to be done through their website, they never ever respond to messages you send online though.
I’d recommend he keeps a log of all correspondence, I email myself every time we make a phone call or send a letter.
If he doesn’t have any luck from raising a complaint through CMS the next step is an appeal through the courts. We’re currently appealing but it’s been about 8 months since we raised it but due to Covid things have pretty much ground to a standstill.
Good luck! They are honestly the worst organisation I’ve ever had the misfortune to have to deal with! Most of the staff are clueless and unhelpful, totally inconsistent with the information they tell you but then when they make a mistake it’s the paying parent who is the one left to deal with the consequences.
If you need any help or advice just message me directly (we’ve had 4 years of this now!).

Thanks so much for all of your advice. Apparently ex gave CMS the wrong address and phone number for family member so they didn't get the opportunity to give the right info straight away. I think he's just found out about all of this from work because of the attachment of earnings.
Unfortunately they are not getting on well at all at the moment so will try and figure out what's happened and help them as much as possible.

The fact that this family member has other dc living in the home will not change Arrears or previous calculations as they had more than enough opportunity to apply this to the claim. It can be added to the next month etc.Also it is a very small amount that will be taken off.

Not true in the cases I've dealt with.

Firstly for one child in his household it is reduced by 11% - 2 children it's 14% and 3 or more it's 16%.

Secondly the assessment is ineffective until they make contact with him. As they were given the wrong address (and I assume there is proof that she knew the correct address) then time will not start to run until he first had contact with them. If they say otherwise he should take it to a tribunal.

Thirdly they will take the information he gives them, do their calculation, and apply it retrospectively. If they don't, again he should take them to a tribunal.

I have seen it from both sides. It took 8 months for my ex to pay. Every time they did a calculation he disputed etc and no money was taken until the correction were made.

Secondly unknowing to me, my last exdp was trying to play CMS, and it was also months of delaying, it didn't matter about the wrong address etc because before they can take money from their wage they have to contact the employer who would tell the ex.
This takes a lot of time.
Adding children after the right calculation are made and not communicating doesn't work because exdp tried that too, he even had proof he made some payments to stop it being taking from his wages. But the RP has to agree to this change.

They simply don't just start taking money from people without having contact with them which was my point. Could you imagine how illegal that would be...

It doesn't matter what side your on it is a extremely long process and unfair for all.

Thanks, I don't feel like I'm getting the full story from either side, just so sad to see really

They simply don't just start taking money from people without having contact with them which was my point. Could you imagine how illegal that would be...

You'd think so wouldn't you? Only I've come across cases where they have done just that - usually because they have not actually written to the paying party at the correct address but carry on regardless. After all, they're not going to know it's the wrong address if they only go on the information the PWC gives them and don't track the paying party themselves.