MNHQ here: New child maintenance campaign from Mumsnet, Gingerbread and the Good Law Project

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello

Over the years we’ve seen thousands of Mumsnet users talk about the difficulty of getting child maintenance payments from uncooperative exes - and lots of anger about how the Child Maintenance Service addresses the issue. (Some of you will remember this Guest Post from last year…)

So we’re really pleased to announce that we’ve teamed up with Gingerbread and the Good Law Project on a new campaign to fix the CMS - and specifically, we’re supporting their legal action against the Department for Work and Pensions. To quote Gingerbread:

‘Gingerbread, alongside the Good Law Project and Mumsnet, is supporting four women who have issued a Letter Before Claim to notify the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) of their intention to seek Judicial Review due to the failure by the CMS to collect child maintenance payments from their children’s non-resident parent, leaving them and their children in financial difficulty and, in some cases, in poverty.’

‘It is a child’s legal right to be supported by both parents, and yet the service designed to protect this right is failing the children. Even before COVID-19, there were already £335 million in unpaid arrears and over 100,000 children across the country not receiving a penny in maintenance. Despite a vast array of enforcement powers, CMS have shown extreme negligence in actually using them, collecting an amount worth less than 10% of what is actually owed. It simply cannot be right that a government service can continually leave children of single parents in poverty without being held accountable.’

‘COVID-19 means this problem is getting worse by the day. CMS are running a skeleton service, meaning they are now as a rule not enforcing payment and are allowing paying parents to reduce or withdraw maintenance payment without any proper evidence. This has already resulted in more single parent families losing out on maintenance payment which quite simply, can be the difference between having food on the table or not. These children deserve better.”

If you’d like to support the campaign on social media, the hashtag is #FixtheCMS and you are very welcome to retweet Mumsnet’s tweet about it here.

We’ll be running a free clinic with Gingerbread next week where you can get advice on any child maintenance issues you’re currently having so please keep your eyes peeled for that and of course we’ll bring you any updates on the campaign.

Thanks
MNHQ

I'd like to see them move towards a more American system. Calculate the cost of a child and make the NRP pay half. If they can't afford it then they need to apply for state help towards their half and prove they can't afford it. It needs to be legally and socially unacceptable not to provide for your child.

If the resident parent was not feeding and clothing the child then action would be taken so why is it acceptable for the nrp?

I fully support this. My gs's dad has an assessment of £37 per month. He earns £1000 pw, self employed but for the same company. He claimed benefits and once he got UC the CMS cancelled original assessment, despite my providing evidence of him working. He works for one employer, I even rang them and they willingly provided confirmation he works there. So it is now up to me to prove otherwise. I am thinking of throwing in the towel.

They are not responding at all at the moment leaving vulnerable children in dire financial straits.

They are bullies. They are collecting arrears at £100 per month when he earns £1000 pw and has even transferred his home to his parents so they cannot touch that. Again, the burden of proof is so high it is impossible to achieve.

Even the enforcement team cannot answer questions that stray from the script. My favourite is "Everyone has a right to be believed..." except me and my grandson it would seem.

I wish you all the best with your campaign.

Let's hope those that can enforce change do. I'm not sure it will happen in my children's life time. I have made my peace in the fact I'm going to not see a penny I'm owed for the past 2 years or the next ten too come.

I am owed £8000

My dds father has just got a mortgage on a very nice house with his wife. She's a stay at home mum, so how the hell has he passed them credit checks when he owes 8000 child maintenance. Imagine if that was council tax or any other debt.

I have just read all the comments nodding my head. All hit the nail right on the head. If it was affecting mainly men to the same rate it affects women it would not be a issue.

Absolutely get it paid off the government and then recover from the NRP. Bet it wouldn't take months to sand a letter then.

Brilliant campaign. The pressure created by suddenly finding yourself as single parent is enormous. When my DS1 was born I was a higher rate tax payer. By the time he was three joined by a younger brother of one, i was a single parent in poverty. XH was off with a new women, I found myself in a supermarket choosing between baby milk and nappies. No food banks near me back then.

Benefits ultimately kick in but I was randomly? investigated and so my claim was delayed by six months.

Two years after finding myself suddenly single I could put food on the table, just about, due to benefits. I couldn't get any childcare due to DS1's additional needs. School couldn't cope with DS1 and finding work was impossible.

Meanwhile XH got a nice new house, spent weekends travelling around visiting friends and family with other women, purchased all food at M and S, didn't turn up for DC when he had a better offer, sent threatening solicitors letters suggesting I was withholding contact when he didnt turn up for that contact we'd agreed.

DS1 is now 16. I've remarried and I'm back on my feet. It's taken over a decade and state help. XH just walked out of one life onto another without looking back. The complete disparity in our circumstances sickens me.

It sickens me that society judges him as an equal parent when he's not done a damn thing to inconvenience himself.

After his parents intervened he did start regular maintenance but over 13 years on his payments are less now than when they started. Hes now in a senior manegerial position and his payments were calculated on a part time junior role he took when he left. I haven't had the fight in me to fight for DS1s education, benefits and maintenance. I've learnt not to fight.

Emotionally we all know it's important to seperate maintenance and access as its in our DCs interests to have a positive relationship with both parents. I've found that it makes the resident parent a slave to the situation and third class citizen whose needs come below everyone else's.

I feel the law is written by men to suit the needs of men.

I remember the CSA used to have the power to take non payers to court, confiscate driving licences, passports etc and even prison as a last resort because they threatened my dds dad with it and he ended up paying regularly for about 8 years after that. The CMS don't even seem to care about taking any enforcement action at all. Neither of my ex's now pays a penny for the kids

The CMS still have those powers, to date they have removed 15 driving licenses and 3 passports.

Powers they have but don't bother using

I don’t understand why child maintenance isn’t treated like tax for the NRP. There should be no option for nonpayment and if a NRP evades payment then there should be serious consequences. The DWP/CMS isn’t toothless, it has powers to address nonpayment. It just doesn’t use them enough to deter NRPs from behaving badly and allowing them to control their ex and disadvantage their children.

I feel the law is written by men to suit the needs of men
This 100%. My ex hasn’t seen his children for years yet somehow I felt ‘lucky’ he paid the tiny amount he did until he went self employed the law protects men to point where we feel grateful if they are doing the bare minimum.

Woman's hour (BBC radio 4) are going to discuss this issue this morning.

Hello - great to see so much support for this campaign, although we're sorry to read your accounts of how you've been let down.

Gingerbread have asked us to pass on the following pointers for how you can support the campaign more widely:

Pledge your support for the #FixTheCMS case here

Use #FixTheCMS hashtag on social media

Share this thread or Gingerbread's pages about the campaign across your own networks to build momentum

Write to your MP to suggest they offer their support via Gingerbread's Do Gooder campaign which can be accessed via this page

Follow @gingerbread on Twitter, @gingerbreadcharity on Instagram, @Gingerbread on Facebook for all the latest updates on the campaign, and share their tweets and social posts across your networks too.

For more information on how you can support, please visit www.gingerbread.org.uk/FixtheCMS

They should do something about self employed who are directors and pay themselves dividends. My ex racked up 18k in arrears after not paying for 8 years even though he was in work, he would just move agency when CSA caught up with him.
For the last 3 years he has been self employed with a 'nil' income for tax purposes (what a load of bullshit). I will never get the 18k he owes for our children. He has paid nothing for 11 years and CSM do nothing, even though they could take his driving licence and passport away. They are utterly useless.

The CSM have written the 18k off because there is no chance of recovery - wtf? People who evade supporting their children should be punished, not have the debt written off!!

I am not a single parent family but totally agree with everything said here. My situation is different. We are a 6 persons family living on a 32k wage only. Payments that came in for 2 of my children from thier biological father came in handy when and if i got them. Now due to covid he has stopped all support financially even though he is a hgv driver on 46k+ and also started a self employed buisness on his days off. How he manages this with him being limited on a tacho I don't understand . But no payments and this just adds on to the arreas that still being paid off after 10 years

And the abuse and threats that some of these NRPs - mostly men - scream down the phone at CMS staff should be viewed as criminal harassment, not a reason to drop the case as being too difficult.

I don't really see how this campaign is going to do anything. It doesn't say exactly what you want done. Just you want maintenance to be paid is too vague. Why are we not saying all maintenance needs to be deducted at source and the receiver shouldn't be charged for going through CMS?

I think every one just wants what is owed to thier children. I do think this whole wait 5 days to report missing payments thing is pointless and obsolete, Banks transfers standing orders etc are done within hours not days.. so why the need for the 5 days? There should be a way were we can collect the money through tax rebates etc so it goes straight to the recieving parent to offset arreas on a case. Full disclosures of finances should be taken into account for assessments, certainly should not be oh we will send a letter and give the paying parent two weeks to see if parent pays before action is been taken, there should not be any warnings just action, the receiver shouldn't have to pay the 4% either, we are not the reason for the paying parent not paying but we are prosecuted because of paying parents actions.

There is quite a stigma associated with being a single parent, particularly as many if you're stuck reliant on benefits to make up your income. Yet there is no great identifier for the abandoning parent - the one who just walks away emotionally, physically and financially. This is a society issue we need to address.

The way the government is underwriting debt for business' to keep investing and trading makes me think we as a society should be underwriting the debt of absentee parents (the CMS payments) so they are always paid on time by society as a whole and society via the CMS claws back those nonpayments by which ever means is necessary. I'm damn sure if it was from the society pot more efforts would be put in.

That would be an investment in a massive proportion of society - masses of women and children. That could make a real difference to outcomes for single parent families.

The difference of being able to rely on the money coming in would allow women to have stability, do things like set up wrap around childcare contracts and be in employment.

The inability to pay childcare is a massive barrier to work and the 70% paid by tax credits (as was when I needed it) was a months in arears payment when nursery required several months in advance so effectively a four month shortfall in payments debt before you'd even created time to go to a job interview. I'd like 50% of childcare costs to be on the absent parent on top of the percentage income. Childcare costs take a massive chunk of income and are a real barrier to work. In a two parent household you're more likely to be able to juggle to avoid some of the costs but as a single parent you need the full wrap around package.

[quote RowanMumsnet]Hello - great to see so much support for this campaign, although we're sorry to read your accounts of how you've been let down.

Gingerbread have asked us to pass on the following pointers for how you can support the campaign more widely:

Pledge your support for the #FixTheCMS case here

Use #FixTheCMS hashtag on social media

Share this thread or Gingerbread's pages about the campaign across your own networks to build momentum

Write to your MP to suggest they offer their support via Gingerbread's Do Gooder campaign which can be accessed via this page

Follow @gingerbread on Twitter, @gingerbreadcharity on Instagram, @Gingerbread on Facebook for all the latest updates on the campaign, and share their tweets and social posts across your networks too.

For more information on how you can support, please visit www.gingerbread.org.uk/FixtheCMS[/quote]
Thank you for the links. I've done the pledge support and will write to my MP but the write to your MP link is broken.

Agree that action needs to be taken on this. As well as formal Gov measures, us as a society should shun men that do this.

Like you would if an acquaintance told you they drove drunk or left their kids alone at home from a young age. Society disapproves of those behaviours and should do the same with non payment of child support.

Plus parents have a responsibility. Much as I love my DS, no way would I have his mistress to Christmas lunch 2 weeks after he walked out on his pregnant wife and child (happened to a friend of mine). He would feel the heat of my disapproval.

Hello

Just wanted to share an update on how things are going, because there has been some movement (not as much as we want, but it's something...)

The CMS has now reversed its decision to run only a skeleton service during the pandemic and is back to operating at 95% of capacity. Still not enough, but it looks like the campaign prodded them to at least get back to something approaching a normal level of service.

The Early Day Motion in Parliament supporting the campaign has 37 MP supporters. Most are from the SNP (which has officially signed up to the campaign) so if your MP isn't on there do give them a prod.

The campaign has attracted support from a big range of organisations and individuals - again, if you know an organisation that you think should be swinging in in support do please email them to let them know.

We're awaiting the CMS's official response to the Letter Before Action on the legal action and we'll let you know when we have something to share on that.

Thanks for all your support so far
MNHQ

Great campaign. Good luck!

I'm extremely late to this thread and wondered if there was any update on the #fixthecms campaign? (I have been left without any maintenance at all for the majority of this year - afraid it's the same old story - self employed expartner manipulating his income figures)

Hi, I'm also hoping for an update on this.
My ex has exploited the pension loophole, he's got his CM payments down to £20 per week as only his earnings after pension contributions are used, this loophole needs to be closed. Also, what about NRPs capital? It shouldn't just be income that's assessed.

I've gone through nearly 18 months of hell with the CMS.. they are a complete waste of air.

My ex made no attempt to see he's son from 2018 and also stopped paying maintenance even though he was in full time employment in an office. He has since been made redundant and I still haven't received a penny throughout all this time - I have sent them untold messages for them to chase him but I'm mentally exhausted from it.

Fathers that don't pay need to be MADE to pay - they laugh at this system