CM and self employed father..

[Sweetpea12]

Has anyone ever successfully proved to child maintenance that their child’s father works? My sons father is a self employed joiner he easily earns £15 an hour and I found out this week he’s to pay the minimum £35 a month because he is claiming benefits. We haven’t been together for a year now but he is still in that job because I’ve seen him in his work clothes going to jobs. It infuriates me he is able to lie like that and hide under the excuse of being self employed. I can dispute the payment but unless I follow him and photograph him (which is crazy) I can’t prove he is working

Hoping someone has a success story for me

Personally no, report him to hmrc? That’s what I was told when my ex was doing similar.

I was going to report him but I didn’t know if they can do anything. I wasn’t aware he even claimed benefits he should be ashamed that he does given he earns a decent enough wage to not need help. The £1 a day for my son is an insult and I understand child maintenance can only do so much. I’ll maybe just cancel my claim but in all honestly I would want to see him caught on for what he is doing

I cancelled mine, it was the same £7 a week but for my 4 kids 🤦🏻 It’s a joke, my ex rents out his rooms but doesn’t work but cms can’t do anything about it

Ask for a reconsideration, go to tribunal and ask for a forensic account. They can claim benefits and tell the cms they don’t work or earn very little, but when in tribunal they’ll have to explain how they’re paying their dd, car insurance, rent etc.
Worked for me. Tribunal was around 5 years ago, took around 2 years to get there. He was stung with a massive bill for back payment. It’s a slog, I did it for principle alone tbh.

Yeah he has a home he pays rent for and even a van that he uses for work purposes so he certainly isn’t just on benefits which I was informed off in my letter. I’ll definitely do something as for me it’s the fact he’s lying that’s annoying me the most. I applied for CM because I think he should contribute to his sons upbringing the £35 won’t help much but it’s a contribution. I was furious when I saw he claims benefit and has used that as an excuse to not contribute what he should be and is just going to get away with it

I’d do what Catcrazy suggested and ask for a mandatory reconsideration. It will take time but hopefully will be worth it in the end. NRPs like your ex are morally repugnant.

Child maintenance are useless I received my payment plan through their online portal and a text confirming it and they won’t speak to me in regards to it until I’ve received a written letter stating it all. So next week I’ll let them know I’m disputing the payment but I don’t expect to get anywhere

If he's claiming benefits and working I'd probably be reporting him to the DWP just in case it's a fraudulent claim. Also on principle I'd go down the tribunal route, long slog but absolutely worth it, ridiculous that NRPs get away with paying dash all for their kids!

Hopefully if it is a fraudulent claim not only will the DWP rip him a new arsehole but it will provide proof for you that he should be paying far more CM

My sister has reported him as it’s anonymous but I’ll gladly give my details if it meant they would look into it when I mention he’s using the benefit to pay child maintenance

It's one thing proving it and another actually getting it. My friend was getting letters every few weeks stating they were unable to receive any payment and she had a phone call stating to not assume she'll ever receive any payments.

I could care less about a payment nowI know he is lying and earning a reasonable amount of money but still claiming a benefit. I’ll be trying my hardest for him to be investigated on this because it’s wrong