Hi everyone. I'm the dreaded second wife, looking for some advice from those on the other side of the awful CMS
I'm lovely though, honestly!
My DH and his ex have awful trouble with CMS and Collect and Pay. At one point, the CMS reduced his direct debits to £0 because HMRC hadn't shared his latest tax statement (had same job for years, nothing changed - not sure wtf went wrong) DH appealed with payslips / bank statements etc. Eventually a decision maker at CMS righted the wrong and then he had a back dated amount to pay off of about £2k. (3 months worth)
All the while, his ex and the kids had just been without his maintenance! His ex doesn't work so they must have been quite hard up. (DH did offer it to her directly but she declined, saying the CMS advised her to not complicate things by taking money directly!?)
Generally, she does prefer to use C&P, instead of Direct Pay. She has other kids (from different dads, not my DH's) and this is just her preferred method.
Anyway, DH obviously had this £2k put to one side so he paid it via the web portal and assumed it would go straight to ex. And normal service then resumed with monthly payments (about £700 pcm)
A few days ago she mentioned to him that he's still in arrears because she hasn't received a lump sum. He logged in and checked and he's definitely not in arrears! She does think her monthly payments have increased so now we're all trying to figure out if if the CMS are spreading the lump sum out for her? Does anyone know if they do this? DH rang CMS and, after being on hold for 40 mins, got told they can't discuss the RP's finances. She hasn't called them yet but she's sent screen shots of her own log in and it is incomprehensible!
It seems really dire if the CMS left her with no money for 3 months and now they're sitting on this lump sum. Has anyone else had this before?
For the avoidance of drip feeding, my DH has 2 primary school aged children with her and they spend around 100 nights per year with us. He's employed and his calculations are done via HMRC data at his annual review (in February I think). This is one of dozens of issues they've both had with CMS over the years and he's thinking about submitting a formal complaint.
Thanks 