No maintenance

[alphabetti]

I am divorced from my children’s father and he refuses to pay any maintenance and when he does it is just tiny amounts. He refuses to see the children - last saw them 4.5yrs ago and they are now 12 and 14yrs.

I do my best to ensure the children have everything they need and my mother helps financially when she can despite being a widow and only working part time. I am becoming more and more stressed and frustrated with the child maintenance service though as they only asses using HMRC details from 2012 despite him working for employers since then and he has told me he had plus I called one to check he was working there last year and was told yes he is our employee. On the advice of child maintenance I spoke to HMRC tax evasion line and they took details but still child maintenance say they have nothing other than 2012 info to say he only has to pay £7 a week which even then he refuses.

He paid £50 direct to child maintenance a few weeks ago but they deducted fees saying they deduct due to us not having an amicable direct agreement but how can we do that when he refuses to pay for his children!!

He owes £4000 of arrears and that’s only from when he was working and they caught him there has been times he’s been working and hid it from them but they say unable to take any arrears as his earnings are too low.

Contacted MP office who got their maintenance caseworker to contact me and said will investigate but never heard anything back and just feel it’s waste of time contacting them again.

In the meantime I have once again stressed myself to provide the children a nice Christmas so they don’t feel they have nothing compared to their friends and cousins and now car has broken down and I am unable to repair it it is so stressful.

I am putting this here really just to let off steam but if anyone has any tips on huw to change the system please let me know as I’m sick of my ex refusing to pay yet he has 2 children that require his financial support. He managed to go in holiday with some woman last year yet won’t even pay for his children and this system doesn’t seem to be able to get any money out of him despite there being £4000 arrears!!

Well, after this amount of time and literally no chance of change id be very vocal about his refusal to pay a penny.

Dont let anything drop. Follow up with mps office. Follow up with everyone. You can write an email and have it sent automatically every Monday morning.

Does it not now come out of his wages since hmrc have found him working?

When he claimed benefits there was a deduction direct from that but they can’t deduct direct from his wages now because they say there’s only info from HMRC from 2012 nothing recent so it’s up to him to pay them and then they’ll pay into my account.

I will try calling MP office again tmro and if not open then on my day off next week.

It’s just all very frustrating. Makes me annoyed that there’s others out there experiencing this too.

Can you put in a Complaint higher up!? That sounds incompetent.

I work for a different but closely related area of the civil service to child maintenance (and have in the past done brief secondments) I absolutely urge you to contact your MP again and again and again. The 'treat officially' letters from MPs are one of the few things that make them jump.
If you know where your ex is working and you have given them the details and he had been there a while, they have fucked up because there absolutely must be a deduction on earning for current and arrears payments coming out of his pay. Deducted at source before he even sees it. If there isn't then they are not doing their job and your MP needs to find out why.
Fathers like this rely on mothers getting exhausted by the whole thing. Don't let this be you.

My ex doesn't work or claim benefits to avoid paying. I feel your pain it's horrible getting no maintenace.