Do I need to know where ex works to make a CMS claim?

[crackofdoom]

I have a voluntary arrangement with ex for child maintenance; he has always paid an amount which I suspect is slightly under what the CMS would require him to pay, but not so much that it's worth rocking the boat for.

He missed a payment this month, and did the same in October, so I'm planning to give him one warning, then get the CMS involved. I have his address, but don't know where he works, or what his salary is, although I do know his role.

Do I have to provide this information, or will the CMS be able to find it out themselves?

Thanks in advance

They can find it out for you.

They can be spectacularly unhelpful though. The £20 fee they charge apparently does not cover them finding a person, even if said person shows up on Google search...yeah I'm bitter. Still haven't recouped my £20 via payments either. Get as much info as you can and keep pushing.

Thank you, two differing views!

@crackofdoom Good luck though- I really hope you have a better experience than mine so far.

Don’t wait. They don’t backdate. You can always close your claim if you want to, but don’t wait.

Thank you guys. As it happened, I sent him a polite but firm text, and he responded full of apologies, claimed it was a mistake and paid me the money immediately. So I won't be unleashing the dogs of war just yet (and if the CMS were dogs, what kind would they be?? Some kind of hopelessly dopey one I imagine 🤔)

Perhaps even a dead one

Did he eventually make the October payment? If he didn't I'd be clear you need that asap and you're not going to keep chasing every few months, he needs to remember and pay or you go to CMS. It's too many 'mistakes' in a short period of time. Was he controlling at all because this can be used as forgetting to pay can be a way of still exerting financial control. If he is genuinely forgetting that's still not good enough, he's an adult he needs put something in place, like taking 30 seconds to add this as a regular task to his phone calendar.

You should really ask/he should provide his P60 every year to make sure the calculation is correct - do you do that?

Luna yeah, both payments in. He said they were returned originally because insufficient funds in his account, but he didn't see the notification. This is the first time he's missed payments, but he's been flakey- and caught out in lies- numerous times before, hence the high level of mistrust.

Just stick as you are, people on MN are so obsessed with cms, when most of the time they don’t bother helping in anyway (my ex hasn’t paid since I reopened the case in august) and cms haven’t done anything about the missed payments. It sounds like he usually pays so I wouldn’t bother going down the cms route it’s so easy to avoid payments.