Another CMS Thread

[HelloImForky]

Wondering if anybody can give me advice.

I opened a case with CMS on the 10th March and they contacted my ex for more info etc, but haven't actually set anything up as yet obviously because since then Coronavirus has taken over!

He usually pays me maintenance directly at the beginning of the month so this would have been due at the beginning of April, but he didn't pay. When I contacted him to ask him to put it in he said CMS have advised him to not pay anything until they get back to him with an amount etc, and also because I chose collect and pay it may be he transfers it and then if it's set up as collect and pay then it might get taken again. Does this sound right? I can't get through to them to ask, but basically it means he has not transferred anything!

I presume if it is correct that it will be backdated once everything is back up and running?

TIA!

The amount he has to pay will be backed dated to the start of the claim. He can pay the money to you and notify the cms he has made a payment of x. And this will be deducted from his over all claim. It would be better if he paid something otherwise the amount he will owe will increase between now and when the cms finally sort their shit out. Good luck.

Yes - that’s correct,

My OH asked the CMS yo calculate and they advised not to pay anything until the claim was finalised.

However he did pay as he didn’t want the kids to go without.

Thank you for replying @unicornsarereal72!

Yes see that's what I would have thought? He said CMS have expressly told him to not pay anything because it could be viewed as voluntarily paying extra?! 😭

I opened the case in March and he had already paid me Marches at that point so I presume I will get April's at some point later then. Just worried seeing a post on here the other day that said CMS weren't going to be enforcing anything over this time!

Thank you @NorthernSpirit

He's probably just listening to what they've told him then!

I think so. My OH couldn’t believe it when they told him not to pay.

@NorthernSpirit So did your OH just pay as normal and then tell CMS?

He's said he has the money there put aside because it would normally be paid anyway... but he's not okay with transferring it because CMS have told him not!!

He paid as normal and then paid the CMS recommendation on the date they said he should. According to the CMS he overpaid.

You should remind him that the CMS calc is the absolute minimum.

The amount he currently pays voluntarily is more than CMS will stipulate. But he's been late paying it recently and I need it paid on time even if it it less - hence why I'm going through them at all. More hassle than it's worth really because now I'm actually down a months maintenance which would have normally been paid by now...and I got to pay £20 for the privilege!

In these uncertain times it could be months before they sort this.

Might be worth a phone call and see if they are still working on the case and ask for a time frame. I found them helpful over the phone. Not that they managed to get any money for me in nearly 2 years. But when my ex Gave me £500 at Christmas I declared it to them And it came off his outstanding balance. Which didn't really dent what I supposedly owed.

I keep my case open in the hope that one day I might see some money. But I'm Not holding my breath.

From our experience of CMS but using direct pay, if you pay before they tell you to/if they haven't told you to, then they wont take that money into account and consider it a voluntary additional payment.
Due to it being through collect and pay, I would assume it would be exactly the same, and they woulsnt consider any money not taken themselves from wages as payment, and he would ultimately end up paying twice.

Ngl, you've probably shot yourself in the foot.

@LittleFoxKit Yes, so what he's saying is right then :(

Apparently they've told him not to pay anything until they've got in contact to confirm whether it will be Direct Pay or Collect & Pay and an amount... I just wasn't sure if that sounded right, but apparently so.

Anything paid outwith could be seen as a "gift" and so maintenance would still accumulate. So annoying!

They don't go straight to collect and pay until he misses multiple payments, they always give them a chance first.
How have they not told you this yet? Can't say I am surprised they don't usually know their arse from their elbow unfortunately.

How amicable are you? If he has the money set aside, would he believe you if you said you'd repay him directly if cms take it twice? As a pp said surely the key thing here is that his kids need to eat.

@PinkCrayon Hi, so I set it up Mid-March and when I called them to do so they asked me if I wanted to use Direct Pay or Collect & Pay, & I chose Collect & Pay because his payments are sometimes late.

They said they would speak to him and if he agreed with Collect & Pay then it would be set up as Collect & Pay. If he didn't agree with that and wanted to do direct pay then they would look at the evidence and they would decide which option was best.

They spoke to him and he gave his details and neither of us have heard anything since.

I think (but don't know for definite) that he picked direct pay because of what he said to me - that IF they decided to go with Collect & Pay then it could be taken direct even if he paid it direct to me. But as far as I know they haven't made a decision as to which option yet... and judging but other threads it looks like they won't be making one for the foreseeable!

@HugeAckmansWife Not amincable at all. I don't trust him, and presumably he feels the same since he's following CMS advice to the letter!

He did say if I was struggling then he would take our DS to his, but I don't want that. He hasn't seen him at all during lockdown, I don't feel comfortable with him seeing him just now with everything going on.

They are extremely unlikely to go to collect and pay without his agreement on your say so, my ex had orders out on him from the child support agency because he refused to pay and when I had to make the switch over to the child maintenance service(as they changed the name and made it even more useless) they let him do direct pay even with his proven history of not paying and he didn't pay a penny at all for 6 months I had to keep ringing them to put him on collect and pay as they let him keep missing payments and wouldn't do it until he missed 3 payments that's 3 months worth of 0 money and then the collect and pay took ages to set up, because again they were utterly useless, he ended up changing his bank and then quitting his job.
My children didn't ever get a penny, they still don't and any arrears they had from him they wiped for him recently as they told me it was 'historical debt' even though my youngest daughter was still only 9 so plenty more years of contribution towards my childrens upbringing that he should have made.
I gave up as it wasn't worth the stress.
Fortunately my kids dont need his money but I do feel sorry for single parents in the same situation that aren't as fortunate as me.
You would have been much better off to stick to an agreement between yourself, cms are utterly useless and I am surprised they haven't told you outright that they wont do collect and pay and you have to even wait for a decision on that. What a total waste of time.
If I were you I would try and get him to agree to it without their input if he does actually pay.

So I did speak to him but he's not prepared to pay it for it to be potentially taken again.

Not sure whether to close the case with them in order to get him to pay again - but doubt I'd be able to get through to them even to do that. As previous poster said, looks like I've shot myself in the foot by going to them in the first place.

Just stick with them now I haven’t had a cm payment in 3 years so I’m not surprised about this. But don’t cancel it now. I did this with my ex where he said if I cancelled then he would just pay me, I cancelled as wasn’t getting payments anyway, so I though I had nothing to lose so might as well take the chance, but then he refused to pay as he said he didn’t believe I had cancelled so won’t pay and refused to call them and ask! Cms won’t let you open a new case straight away so I had to wait several weeks before I could open one again (can’t remember how long)

@PumpkinP Thank you for that view. You’re right, I opened it for a reason so may as well stick with it I suppose.... just frustrating it’ll take months to get a penny. I’ve had to take a wage cut and am struggling at the moment. So is everybody I suppose though x