Child Maintenance Service users - step this way please! MNHQ here

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello

As a part of our campaign with Gingerbread and the Good Law Project to Fix the CMS, we wanted to flag up that the National Audit Office is asking CMS users to fill in this consultation about their experiences.

The NAO is conducting a 'value for money' review of the CMS to find out whether it's meeting its objectives and providing good service, so please do fill in the consultation if you're a CMS user.

[POST EDITED BY MNHQ TO ADD: The NAO has been in touch with the following:

"Thank you also to those who have pointed out that the options we have provided for parents to explain their involvement with the Child Maintenance Service are not clear. Please accept our apologies. In particular, people have pointed out that respondents cannot identify as being entitled to child maintenance but not receiving it, or identify as a parent who is obliged to pay child maintenance but isn’t."

"If you should be receiving child maintenance but are not, please select the option of being ‘A person with main care responsibilities (receiving child maintenance)’. You will be able to tell us later in the survey that you are not receiving the maintenance you are entitled to."

"If you are a parent who is supposed to be paying child maintenance but are not, please select the option of being ‘A person without main care responsibilities (paying child maintenance)’. You will be able to tell us later in the consultation that you are not paying the child maintenance you owe."

"We will also read and use contributions from parents that have already used the “other” category."

"We can’t make changes to the consultation itself, because that would make it difficult to interpret the results we have collected so far. However, we have added additional help text to the survey to make it clearer."]

In addition, Gingerbread have asked whether any CMS users have recent experience of the CMS writing off large sums owed by non-resident parents. If that's happened to you in the last few months we'd like to hear about it.

Thanks
MNHQ

PS If you'd like to be kept up to date with all Mumsnet's campaigning activity and actions, please sign up to our email list here.

The links don't go to surveys. Just a "front page" with nothing there.

My ex is supposed to have paid between £5 and £7 per week. He has refused to get a job purely so he doesn’t have to pay more than the minimum.

He owes nearly £2000 so you can see how diabolical the scheme is. That is a lot of £5s.

@PomBearWithoutHerOFRS

The links don't go to surveys. Just a "front page" with nothing there.

Hi @PomBearWithoutHerOFRS the consultation link is this one (scroll right down to the bottom - admittedly not the most user-friendly page)

I have banged on about this under many a user name over the years. I've emailed MNHQ, Gingerbread media and anyone else but no responses so it's good to see this is being tackled. I'll complete the survey. Non payment of child maintenance should be as shameful as drunk driving. Too many (predominantly men) get away with not paying and see themselves as shrewd operators when they achieve it rather than the scum they really are. My ex has tried every trick in the book including applying for travel expenses! The fraud investigation team are on to him and his 'side' business that's making double his declared PAYE. HMRC are in his tail too. Sadly I have the energy and the tenacity to ensure the CMS exercise every Avenue available in law that many don't. The government should pay the resident parent and pursue the non paying parent. The state would then up their game and apply sanctions, attachment to earnings and other measures a bit more readily and the resident parent and the children would not be disadvantaged waiting for the state to do what is necessary. I could rant all day. I won't 😂

Thanks @RowanMumsnet

I have completed the form, but it rather foolishly limits the selection of options to Non Resident Parent PAYING child maintenance, and does not offer the option of Non Resident Parent NOT paying child maintenance. Do they really think that Non Resident Parents who DON'T pay maintenance don't exist or are they just not planning on dealing with that very prevalent issue.

I cancelled mine, wasn’t worth claiming £7 a week for 4 children.

There wasn’t a category for “I’ve waited for 16 years to get any maintenance so my oldest is now nearly 21”.

I was supposed to get £120 to £150 a month over the last 6 years.

I have been lucky to get one payment a year through DOE as my ex knows how to avoid paying and changes jobs and address, works cash in hand, all the usual things that are done.

It has taken 6 years and a run up of thousands of pounds before they have taken it to enforcement

The CMS make it really easy not to pay for a child and don't act quick enough for simple things like setting up collect and pay.

They allow the debt to increase without using their powers.

From what I understand enforcement officers are going to bayliff his home soon. Maybe that will stop him running up thousands in the future but I doubt if.

@SofiaAmes

I have completed the form, but it rather foolishly limits the selection of options to Non Resident Parent PAYING child maintenance, and does not offer the option of Non Resident Parent NOT paying child maintenance. Do they really think that Non Resident Parents who DON'T pay maintenance don't exist or are they just not planning on dealing with that very prevalent issue.

Huh that seems odd! We'll flag it up to Gingerbread who are in touch with the NAO

The CMS are a joke - ex is employed by his own limited company so only pays herself minimum wage, he was supposed to pay £9 a week but argued that travel expenses need to be taken into consideration - knowing that he owns a house that he rents out plus other income I know about I went back to CMS to investigate further. They then calculated £50 a week but I’ve never received a penny as apparently he went to his MP to query the payments and then dropped his earnings to zero so he doesn’t have to pay anything. Who knows where the money he earns goes - I’m assuming his new partner but this won’t be looked into. He’s working so his earnings must be going to someone. Absolute joke.

My comment under ‘what could we do to improve the service?’:

COLLECT THE MONEY!! 😜

Owed over £4K and no sign of it. Such a terrible government department.

Also shall we look at NRP suddenly going self employed, declaring he earns next to nothing therefore paying an insulting amount to raise his kids?

@Hen2018

My ex is supposed to have paid between £5 and £7 per week. He has refused to get a job purely so he doesn’t have to pay more than the minimum.

He owes nearly £2000 so you can see how diabolical the scheme is. That is a lot of £5s.

Talk about cutting his nose off Because if on benefits he will have to be actively looking for work Added to which, paltry for a jobless single adult

@Matilda1981

The CMS are a joke - ex is employed by his own limited company so only pays herself minimum wage, he was supposed to pay £9 a week but argued that travel expenses need to be taken into consideration - knowing that he owns a house that he rents out plus other income I know about I went back to CMS to investigate further. They then calculated £50 a week but I’ve never received a penny as apparently he went to his MP to query the payments and then dropped his earnings to zero so he doesn’t have to pay anything. Who knows where the money he earns goes - I’m assuming his new partner but this won’t be looked into. He’s working so his earnings must be going to someone. Absolute joke.

I bet the smile was wiped off his face during lockdown and support for self employed based on reported earnings!

I could rant all day.

Absolutely me too!

I've done the survey - including lengthy rants! But also a summary of how they need to improve (personally I'd shut down the current agency, sack the staff and start again!)

It IS a joke and needs a complete overhaul

My improvements:

1 make payment amounts realistic 12% of income is pathetic and that's before reductions!

2 enforce payment - stop LETTING NRPs get away with this shit

Solution 3 fold

A - PAYE NRPs deduct cm at source simple!

B this then frees agency to pursue self employed, job hoppers and other cm dodgers

C have decent impactful sanctions eg fixed penalty notices that don't require the current long drawn out process and clogging up courts. If £1000 fixed penalty notice per month not paid were legislated for and enforced I'm betting a fair few nrps would start paying but smart!

3 better staff, continuity of service and accountability - I swear I spoke to some at csa/cms who acted like they were ex's best friend

Just for starters...

I'm still fuming (OK, slight exaggeration, I'm mildly miffed) at that Chat you had with a politician who listed all of the sanctions the CMS could use against non-paying NRP, including prison. It didn't seem to occur to her that all of these sanctions are quite useless IF THEY DON'T ACTUALLY USE THEM.

I can't complete the survey as I'm a resident parent who is not receiving payment. Which wasn't an option.

I don't receive any money either looks like I cant fill it out either....

My conclusion of the CMS is that they are useless.

I quite enjoyed filling this in! Lovely opportunity to vent about the ridiculousness of their system and processes. Not being able to speak to case officers, or the investigations team, the online portal not being replied to, complaints being ignored, mistakes on their part, failing to collect any money, letters not making sense with each other... it was cathartic 😂
Not that I'm expecting anything to change but venting feels refreshing!

@Sometimesfraught82 I thought that too! My ex definitely got his just desserts during lockdown whilst we actually did pretty well.

Ex-husband moved to the other side of the world. Australia being one of the toughest countries to emigrate too. Owed £12k. They wrote to me this year saying it has been written off.

Can you imagine if he owed that in unpaid taxes? Or if he had had a criminal record for the violence and abuse I was subjected too? Not a chance. But unpaid maintenance? Fucking go for it.

I made a complaint online to my case worker and was ignored. They're useless.

Grrrrr. I'm wound up now, after that. Let's see if they do anything

Lovely that there’s no option for resident parent NOT receiving child support, ffs, they must think their system is flawless