Child maintenance service collecting money from estate of parent who has died??

[TheDogPeedOnMyBed]

I will try to keep this as brief as possible. My daughter's dad (who she didn't see) recently passed away (in August). As soon as I knew I rang the CMS to inform them. He hadn't been paying, and had accrued arrears of over 5.5k . It is now looking likely that the CMS didn't investigate this, and that any estate he had may have already been distributed , meaning the arrears owed may never be paid. Would I have cause to complain about this?

Yes, possibly. I think you need to make the complaint in writing and escalate it as necessary. Any chance of getting your MP involved?

If the estate had been distributed before the Inland Revenue were paid tax money owed you can bet your bottom dollar they wouldn't just shrug and let it go. The CMS shouldn't either.

Did you know you can contest a will? I would expect a claim from your DC would be successful.