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.

Could someone advise me if my ex would still have to pay even though they claim PIP and full disability? He doesn't pay a penny towards our son, or contribute at all to uniform etc.

**I have just filled it out and put it under 'other' for my experience of the 'service' with my non paying ex.

Just put it under other and write that you are a resident parent and receive no maintenance.**

You will get £7 if on benefits, that’s what I get as my ex has been on pip for years 🤨

@Sometimesfraught82 It's interesting to notes that parents of young adult HE students are prevented from doing just that if they are self employed. They must add I. Any funds taken from their company, including profits and dividends. Why treat parents differently when it's adult child (student ) maintenance rather than adult child maintenance?? Oh, it must be because it's the state who loans the difference, rather than the resident parent!

I've filled in the survey but forgot to add that I feel it is unfair that subsequent children (or even NRPs step children) take a precedence over existing children, who get less maintenance due because their NRP has other children to support. I don't think maintenance should be reduced when another child comes along, particularly when you consider that the NRP probably then has two incomes due to new partner. If that even makes sense

nothanksbarb according to the online calculator, if the NRP gets PIP, they pay nothing.

My ex is on pip and pays £7 but he gets UC too

My ex is apparently on benefits and should be paying £7 a week but for some reason, CMS can't tell me due to data protection, whatever benefit he gets won't release any money.

I've done the survey. It will make not one jot of difference. My mum was chasing child support 40 years ago from my dad. Now here i am 40 years on chasing some waste of space man who thinks it is ok to not provide for his own children. It's disgusting the system is still rubbish.

@Thisnamewasnttaken123

**I have just filled it out and put it under 'other' for my experience of the 'service' with my non paying ex.

Just put it under other and write that you are a resident parent and receive no maintenance.**

Did this. Let's see if anything comes of it.

My ex is apparently on benefits and should be paying £7 a week but for some reason, CMS can't tell me due to data protection, whatever benefit he gets won't release any money.

I had this for about a year ex didn’t have to pay any maintenance because despite being on benefits my ex had “priority debts” so didn’t have to pay any maintenance because whatever debts he had were more important apparently so it’s usually when they are already taking money out of his benefits

@MsVestibule Yes I was infuriated by that chat too

@HotChocolateLover glad your ex got an bit of justice

@wherewildflowersgrow I suspect both -

State having to stump up
Healthy dose of institutionalised sexism given most nrps are men

@paintedpanda - I made that point in my rant. My ex has gone on to have 5 more and a 6th is on the way. Bitched and moaned about every penny he paid of cm and didn't even pay all he owed quick back of the envelope calculation I reckon over £10k in arrears which was written off against my wishes

@unicornsarereal72 it is crap that it's still crap! No political will to change things either I don't believe

I also mentioned the unfairness about the reductions for step and subsequent children. It's probably the thing that makes me crosser than anything in my case. Aware that others have other, possibly bigger, issues.

@unicornsarereal72 my MiL was taking her ex husband back to court from 1969. 52 years ago, and for 10 years after that. There has never been a time of financial equality over children.

@Sometimesfraught82 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

Not necessarily. Where I'm from there are plenty of fathers who work cash in hand, don't claim benefits, but also don't declare any income.

They can do quite nicely for themselves, especially if they are relatively good at a trade - employer gets someone cheaper because they're not paying insurance and vat, the deadbeat parent get all the cash and pays no CMS. All backfires if they get injured and aren't able to work, but they're mostly young guys who are healthy now and aren't thinking about the future.

An appalling service. My ex’s arrears have been written off. That’s despite him owing property in his sole name both here innUK and abroad, with numerous cars, business premises etc etc. Plenty of assets. The people writing off historical debt should be ashamed.

My ex now owes £26,000 and isn't paying, took me getting my money involved for them to get their finger out their backside and go to court for a liability order the bloke owes £55,000 in total over 3 cases waiting on court date, hoping now it's going to court he won't get away with it anymore 🤷🏻‍♀️

@hayleym1987

My ex now owes £26,000 and isn't paying, took me getting my money involved for them to get their finger out their backside and go to court for a liability order the bloke owes £55,000 in total over 3 cases waiting on court date, hoping now it's going to court he won't get away with it anymore 🤷🏻‍♀️

Mp not money 🤦🏼‍♀️

*42ColaOlaLa

I had this for about a year ex didn’t have to pay any maintenance because despite being on benefits my ex had “priority debts” so didn’t have to pay any maintenance because whatever debts he had were more important apparently so it’s usually when they are already taking money out of his benefits*

Sounds likely. He has debts coming out of his ears.

But priority over his children aye? Nice.

My children are young adults now so I don't know if my experience is valid. I went through hell getting my ex to pay.

Mine conveniently set up as self employed after divorce, he under declares his income. According to CMS the onus is on me as a RP to prove it. Yet they will readily accept his claims when he tells them he’s unemployed. Meanwhile he won’t see his children due to work commitments.Boils my piss.

It’s a wholly inadequate system that needs completely overhauling. Staff don’t often know their own service guidelines. NRP should not be allowed to claim expenses against maintenance for their children. Nor should they be allowed to reduce maintenance on the basis of living with children who are not their own. Not paying CM should be akin to non payment of council tax with stricter enforcement.

CMS didn’t collect a penny of my ex so I can’t fill in the survey either. They wrote to me 2 years ago to say they were writing off £35k - that money could have put my daughter through university- another thing I have had to pay for.

I filled it out but can't remember what I put as I'm a RP getting nothing. I had to close my case as my ex moved abroad and they couldn't have a case open for someone who doesn't live here. Found out after about REMO. He moved to the US with his new wife and baby so REMO applied. After going through the US application process I was told they cannot deduct money under REMO as the U.K. case is closed. Yet you cannot have 2 cases open at the same time in 2 different countries. Also you can't have a case open here for someone who doesn't live in the U.K. Been nearly a decade with no money from him. The last money I got was £10 from his wife with his mobile number attached and a call from CMS asking me to call him. That was out of order of them to try to guilt me into taking to my abuser.

@WhatWouldPhyllisCraneDo
@Graphista
Oh I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks it's unfair. It always made me wonder why my children were suddenly less important and cost less to feed, clothe, house etc because daddy had ran off and had another baby. Especially when I was a single parent struggling to find work and he had two incomes from them both.
It particularly stung when my children found out about their second new sibling, not because exH had phoned to tell them the good news (or, you know, even turned up to tell them in person), but because we had a letter from the CMS to tell us the maintenance was going down because he had a new child to support. Nice.

My daughter receives nothing for her child. Her ex is not working or in receipt of benefits so no payment is due. He does live in a very expensive part of London, has a new car and pre pandemic 2 holidays a year. How are NRPs allowed to get away with this?