DC decided last summer they no longer want to stay with Dad EOW, and as this was - obviously - my fault Dad decided to stop paying me the £30pm we had agreed (not that he paid it most months anyway, but I digress...).
I applied to CMS in September and they had a DOE set up in February as he was not interested in engaging with them at all, though I didn't actually know it was DOE until now. Actually thought he'd done the right thing and agreed to pay it to them to send to me. Anyway, the first payment wasn't until March so it makes sense, and there were quite a bit of arrears from Sept-Feb payments he'd missed. His regular payent was just over £50 and he's been paying me £65ish including some arrears. We have just had the annual review and it is now around £160 a month. Because Dad conveniently took a break from work for the first half of last year right around the time DC decided he no longer wanted to stay over, his HMRC income for that period was a lot lower than his actual income, so I was expecting a change like this.
Anyway, my main question is, is it normal after a change/review that the amount isn't correctly paid? The review was completed on the 10th and my online account shows they collected the payment yesterday which is about the same time of month as always, but for the previous amount. Does anyone know if it's likely his employer just hasn't had enough time to update for this change yet, or if there's another reason he wouldn't have to pay the full amount - I thought that was the whole part of a DOE, they just take the correct amount every month? It's nowhere near 40% of max deductions or anything like that that would mean his employer wouldn't do it.
The other thing is I've been through all the documents they've sent me and every section of my account and none of the figures between the time the claim was set up and now add up to 1) what has actually been paid or 2) the arrears that should still be owing from Sept 2023 based on the payments I have had since March. Comparing that to the original total payment amount leaves arrears still of over £200 but apparently as of this most recent payment he is only £3 in arrears. Since I looked at the account yesterday and just under £80 of arrears were showing, it actually seems like the entire payment this month has been taken off the arrears balance despite that including this months regular payment amount and only £12ish of arrears. How can the monthly due amount being paid count towards his arrears? Surely then he's just essentially paid the arrears off but then not paid this months in full... so he'd still be in the same amount of arrears? It's very confusing, it's not really clear when he's actually expected to start paying the new amount, either, as they say he's liable to pay it from the review date from the review but then the letter mentions to expect the amount from 29th Nov... So December then... he just gets away with paying £100 less than he should until then? I really don't understand it at all.
Every document or the different payment pages of my account seems to tell me something completely different than the last. They haven't even sent me an updated payment schedule with the review for me to make head and tail of it or know what to expect. The payments either turn up in my bank or they don't but I am flat out at the minute and honestly really need the money to pay the bills. Obviously I will be ringing them but i have tried that and I was on hold for over an hour today before they closed and was just wondering if anyone had any ideas on what will happen with it or how to work out if any of the figures are correct - I feel like I'm going round in circles and won't even know how to explain it to them when I do get through next week!