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.

In my experience cms are pretty useless. It took me months to get anything from ny ex h as ge kept delaying and not sending wage slips in, they went to his employer who again didn't send all the relevant info in first time so they claim kept getting extended, in the end it was sortedand he ended up paying back pay as well, but now ex h is living with new partner whi has child from previous relationship, i must add she gets cm from her dd dad, but now mine reduces because my ex h is living with her and her dd, its a joke.
To me it seems they favour the NRP more than the resident parent.

My partner has a 17 year old, she is not in full time education and She claims benefits as she has moved in with her boyfriend. She does not live with her mother anymore but my partner has to still pay her mother child maintance for her! How can this be right!!

Thank you!

It felt very refreshing to rant to the NAO. The CMS don’t read anything that I send them 😂 And very timely as I saw this post just after trying to send another message via the CMS online system. All I get back is “we’ll respond within 7 days” and then don’t 🤣

@Sometimesfraught82

I'm a bit late to this but

I had a consent order for finances.
He said he wasn't earning summer and don't pay.

I went to court. Your plan only works if I had managed to save a fortune to pay for a lawyer.

Instead I was raising our children. He cried in the court. The judge did sweet FA.

So no, I disagree with you that it can be sorted this way.

I'm owed £15000 on a financial consent order and £3000 via CMS which cancels out the consent order which he didn't pay.

Summer? Earning anymore.

Just echoing what others have said. Useless ex chooses not to see the kids, every time CMS catch up with him and put a deduction of earnings in place, he quits his job. This cycle has been going on for 10 years with no consequence. Of course he will keep doing it, why wouldn't he when his actions have no repercussions. If I were to neglect my children and claim it was because their dad didn't pay for them I would go to jail. Equally if I had a council tax bill of 15k I would have faced a hefty fine and court appearance a long time ago.

It simply isn't good enough that these idiots can get away with just not paying. I won't stop fighting to get my children what they are owed!

I feel so angry after reading all these comments that so many people are owed so much money and having it written off. You wouldn't get that anywhere else!

CMS are completely useless. Ex has two jobs and flits between the two whenever the CMS pull their finger our to do a deduction from earnings. They know he does it but they do nothing. Also recently had arrears written off. I wasn't consulted about this just informed after the fact and when I called to complain was told I had no say in the matter.

Yep, it's a massive burden on the tax payer, and I say this as a 45 yr old woman that has always worked, due to child care I had to cut down my hours and claim benefits as well as working.

I don't receive anything from my dd s father who is now 14 as he moved away and cms cant find him, its disgusting and it's a burden to cover everything, it's my pleasure as I love my daughter, but why should she go without all the time?

I truly believe that its actually a burden on the tax payer and its should be on cms to make sure that people that want to dodge their financial responsibilities with regards to their children are held responsible, with legal responsibilities.

I should add, that if I could cope financially without any support i would do, i am struggling to pay bills and tbh, if i had an absolute minimum from my childs dad i would not have to! I had to cut down my hours at work ,so the childcare is a big problem for many lone parents and cuts down their earnings! I truly believe cms should have the legal power to chase down the irresponsible parents and hold them accountable. That will never happen...

Ex husband of 15 years contributes nothing towards dd,, at least a small amount should go towards a childs food, heating etc, clothes...parents that pay nothing and escape by means of self employment or other means should be in some way accountable, the children miss out and our country has got this so wrong, and there should be stricter measures like in the us

Ugh.. so angry, sorry all for my rants

[quote grandmashotdoodlebugs]@Sometimesfraught82

I'm a bit late to this but

I had a consent order for finances.
He said he wasn't earning summer and don't pay.

I went to court. Your plan only works if I had managed to save a fortune to pay for a lawyer.

Instead I was raising our children. He cried in the court. The judge did sweet FA.

So no, I disagree with you that it can be sorted this way.

I'm owed £15000 on a financial consent order and £3000 via CMS which cancels out the consent order which he didn't pay. [/quote]
Definitely need legal assistance to construct the financial order

But at that point it is a legally binding contract signed off by a judge

So if broken and black and white broken, can very easily be pursued independently.

@creaturcomforts

I should add, that if I could cope financially without any support i would do, i am struggling to pay bills and tbh, if i had an absolute minimum from my childs dad i would not have to! I had to cut down my hours at work ,so the childcare is a big problem for many lone parents and cuts down their earnings! I truly believe cms should have the legal power to chase down the irresponsible parents and hold them accountable. That will never happen...

I could “cope financially” without any financial support

But I still receive
And I would absolutely pursue if that stopped

It’s not about being able to “cope”

I want to treat my children, save for my children, not burden them with financial stress etc,

Although I have never been separate from my DCs father, I can still sympathise and be angry on others' behalf. Sister in law, friends, all working hard to bring up their much loved children, with little or no support, financial or other, from the NRP.

Have these parents (mainly fathers) no moral compass? Don't they love the children they made? Especially those who previously lived with their children and were a much loved Daddy? Don`t they care about how their (perhaps sudden) absence affects their children, as does the lack of income?

Good luck to all of the parents who are doing their best, much harsher penalties please for the arseholes that just walk away.

@WhatWouldPhyllisCraneDo

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

Me too.

@barregirl1

Thank you!

It felt very refreshing to rant to the NAO. The CMS don’t read anything that I send them 😂 And very timely as I saw this post just after trying to send another message via the CMS online system. All I get back is “we’ll respond within 7 days” and then don’t 🤣

Well we're glad it was cathartic at least!

I had a response through the portal today from the enforcement team calling me Ms Lacey and my ex Mr Henry.

This is neither of our names so I'm not sure if I have been given details from someone else's case or whether they just copy and paste standard responses.

Even when they do reply within 7 days it doesn't answer the question asked.

@Sometimesfraught82 You really are at the mercy of who deals with your case.

Final hearing end of August and by early October he was working again. All round shite system which supports NRP in not providing for their children.

I think the only way things will truly change is changing the public’s perception of single parents, and publicly shaming all these individuals into compliance. The poster above who mentioned the cost to the tax payer is absolutely right. Somehow I can’t see hard lined consequences for non payment when our own PM has multiple children by multiple women and whines about the costs of raising them.

Done, thanks MNHQ.

We'll see if they listen, my hopes are really low. CMS are utterly useless.

[quote SpaceRaiders]@Sometimesfraught82 You really are at the mercy of who deals with your case.

Final hearing end of August and by early October he was working again. All round shite system which supports NRP in not providing for their children.[/quote]
But you construct a financial consent order before the divorce is finalised?

So if he was made redundant
You simply write in to the financial consent order, once working x% of income”
It is agreed between the divorcing partners (and or their lawyers if not amicable) and then signed off by a judge.
Then the divorce can be finalised.

@HughGrantsHair

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.

If the person on benefits has debts the CMS are 14th on the list of priorities. It shows you how important children are for the DWP.

Oh I enjoyed this rant! £21k owing and several years worth of a shit show from the old/new system.....let's hope they sort this mess out!

@Aerisash I had the same a few weeks ago!

Incorrect names used after my local MP wrote to them on my behalf...wow!

I have made a formal complaint but I expect that will get lost in the system. Utter joke.

The law needs changing, anyone who doesn't financially provide for their children gets put in prison, like America.

Unfortunately this will never happen here and the only time they will face retribution is at the pearly gates (fingers crossed). How these people sleep at night is beyond me.