Child maintenance

[PumpkinsandKittens]

I think I know the answer already but is there anything I can do about this, have children with ex, he doesn’t see them at all, no over nights no contact nothing (his choice) I opened a child maintenance claim when we split 5 years ago but it said he wasn’t working or claiming benefits so no maintenance payments, I know what he does, he has a 3 bed house and rents out all 3 rooms to lodgers whilst sleeping on his sofa, (he has admitted this to me) due to this child maintenance can’t do anything, I ended up closing the case last year as I was frustrated getting nothing and it just felt like it was being rubbed in my face (would constantly get letters saying he didn’t have to pay anything from cms) I did Keep it open initially in hopes that one day he would get a job but 5 years later and it never happened. Is there anything I can do about this? I put it into the calculator as he told me how much he gets and he should be paying £380 a month! I’m guessing I won’t get anywhere as I suspect it’s cash and I know he doesn’t declare the lodgers..

You need to keep the case open incase he dies. Then you could possibly get something from his estate. If you have agreed that the case is closed then the cms will not be able to help you at all.

No, I don't think so :(
income from lodgers in your home is considered different for tax purposes than income from work anyway but if it's cash only there is nothing you can do

Sorry should have said it’s a HA property so he doesn’t own it, sorry for missing that out

Errrrm I'm pretty sure he can't rent out his HA house! I'd be informing the HA

He can I’ve looked into it, depends on the HA.

That's shocking! You need to open up another claim and keep fighting.

Child maintenance aren’t interested and told me they won’t investigate because he “could be living off a partner” I told them he isn’t but they don’t care.

Report him for not declaring the income from the lodgers. If he would be paying £380 per month he will be receiving over £7500 per year in income so should be filling in a tax return.

Does he have no job whatsoever? What about benefits? He must be charging alot of rent to pay rent and bills and live off that alone. I'd still open a new case regardless but I'm not sure there's anything a solicitor could do. If you suspect some kind of fraud report it. Sadly some men do just slip through the net and manage to get away with paying nothing.

He’s bound to be breaking his contract and not declaring his income. Report him to HA & HMRC.

You can earn something like £7400 per year from renting out rooms without paying tax

Is there any way you can get access to his National Insurance number? If he has income from subletting he must be filling self assessments, and they can decide on maintenance based on that.

if not, may be reporting him to IR for tax avoidance?

Yes, I know, which, if you read my post, is why I said if he would be paying £380 per month in child maintenance he would be earning more than £7500 per year (which is the threshold) so he should be filling in a tax return.

No he doesn’t work at all, and claims no benefits, the flat is in central London hence how he gets so much, he told me it was £2000 a month so that’s what I put into the calculator, I don’t have his NI number and have no contact with him at all now. What would happen if I reported him to HMRC? He can definitely rent out the rooms I know someone that works for his HA and she said it was allowed and according to the website it is allowed.

So you can take a housing authority house with far more bedrooms than you need, turn it into a House of Multiple Occupancy, and pay no tax on the profits??! Someone really needs to close that loophole if that's the case 😱

It was his mums house, she died, it was given to him and he was able to keep living there god knows how that happened and I’m still confused they gave a single man a 3 bed house in central London!

It’s one of the reasons why he doesn’t see our children at all as he is unable to have them, he has nowhere to take them and would rather sleep on his sofa.

It's classed as unearned income so you should be applying for a variation so they can take it in to account.

Report him to hmrc and the housing authority.

Thanks I’m going to report it, does anyone know what will happen? Surely he will just deny it all?