Are CMS so easily confused?

[RebelliousOwl]

Myself and DH have our two youngest children who aren't biologically ours. We initially fostered them and are now with us under a special guardianship order which we have had for 5 years.

We don't claim any benefits or get any money towards their upkeep as we earn a decent amount from our jobs but are able to claim child maintenance.

There are three parents we can claim from - the children's mother and the father for each child (different dad's for clarity)

Dad 1 pays around £100pm and is very regular and on time. Dad 2 paid about £50 once in the beginning and nothing since. Mum has never paid a penny.

CMS say they are still trying to get something out of mum and Dad 2 but it has been a very long time and they seem to switch between having a job and back on benefits every 6 months or so. Due to all the switching CMS can't pin down a regular way to get anything from them, despite arrears mounting up. Is this a way to just constantly avoid paying forever?

No could just be they are incapable of holding down a job

Pretty much yes. Sorry you're having to deal with such losers.

Send your MP an email. They can be surprisingly effective at dealing with public bodies like CMS.
Mum and Dad 2 could be avoiding CMS on purpose or it could be their incompetence.

I'm very surprised you're having to go for CM. Do the LA not pay you an allowance ? That would be more usual ?

No allowance from the LA as we earn too much, 55k each so no child benefit either.
It might sound a lot but we have other children plus childcare for the little ones so the maintenance would help a bit.

Excellent suggestion @BoohooWoohoo I hadn't thought of this and will certainly try

The truth is unless the paying parent is a decent person & pays voluntarily or has a steady job that the CMS can get a DEO for then it's really not that easy to get maintenance if they don't want to pay and/or have a haphazard/lackadaisical attitude to working.

The children are clearly with you because their parent(s) couldn't or didn't want to look after them which suggests they're not the most stable of people so I'd just accept that not getting regular maintenance is part of that & should have been a consideration in the decision to take the children on.

I've dealt with the CSA/CMS in a personal & professional capacity for the past 20 years - they are a bit shit but there's not much they can do in these sorts of cases.