MNHQ here: Tell us what you think about the Child Maintenance Service

[BojanaMumsnet]

Hello

The House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee has launched an inquiry into the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) and its effectiveness in ensuring regular payments for children and will consider recommendations to improve the service overall.

The Committee is inviting submissions addressing the following points:

• How well is the CMS performing for children and parents? How could it be improved?
  
  
• What problems do parents face – both for the parent with care and the non-resident parent?
  
  
• Are levels of child maintenance set correctly?
  
  
• What powers does the CMS have and how effectively are they used? How effective is enforcement action?
  
  
• What will happen to CSA arrears or unresolved cases when parents move to the new CMS?
  
  
• How might the CMS deal with any weaknesses or loopholes in the old CSA system?
  
  
• Are there any opportunities for Government departments to work together to ensure regular payment?
  
  
• Is there any international evidence on ways of ensuring parents regularly contribute to their children’s maintenance payments?
  
  Please share your thoughts and experiences below, or if you prefer, you can respond directly to the Committee via this link.
  
  Please note that the deadline for submissions is Monday 5 September 2016.
  
  Thanks
  MNHQ

[MumsFlouncingOnASummerHoliday]

If we want to link departmental information sharing how about inland revenue fraud and CMS. So many of us know our XH's are earning more than they pay minimal maintenance on. Big fines for those who are caught would help fund further investigations and act as a deterant.

[MumsFlouncingOnASummerHoliday]

16% gross for two DC one of whom is severely disabled is that enough? No its not. He only pays based on his part time salary that he earnt when he left 9 years ago. He left in part because he didn't cope with a very high needs child. He moved into a house with another women that ment they had two decent salaries coming in whilst we were living some way below the poverty line. For various reasons we fell between benefits and my ebay earnings topped up by a little tax credits (increasedyears down the line once DS1 became entitled to DLA) . The disparity in our circumstances is the thing that jarred (still jars) so much with me.

I've remarried and my now DH supports the family. XH boasts that any little luxury we have his minimal maintenance covers. His maintenance wouldn't pay for a days childcare a week. Its a joke. The system doesn't seam to have any moral or legal clout.

[kittybiscuits]

I absolutely agree - the deadline is the deadline. When it's late, it's late. The 7 day window period should be ahead of the due date not after it.

Redken your comments are a disgrace.

CMS need their own fraud team. They should warn NRPs about sanctions and penalties for attempts to evade CM responsibilities and issue them. It should affect a person's credit rating and it should show on a DBS that they are a non paying parent. The levels of maintenance are very low but this would be tolerable if they had some teeth to deal with non-payers.

People who think CM should be means tested should go fuck themselves

[Maria25]

Thank you for your replies. I'm not holding my breath for anything to be sorted out tbh. He will dodge and shun his responsibilities like he always has. I know for an absolute fact he earns £15 an hour cash and is paid daily, he works for a millionaire couple on their estate and has done for 20 years. He didn't have a bank account when we were together so I doubt if he has one now. The court orders only cover his contact with me and who our daughter lives with - they don't mention anything else so I won't be able to use those. I only wanted something to put towards the costs of her dance and drama clubs she is starting in September but it seems from what I've read that the CMS have no actual powers to enforce or investigate at all so I'll not rely on them to get anything resolved.

[AyeAmarok]

The system is a joke.

The CMS needs more teeth, the penalties need to be much tougher.

Payments need to be deducted at source as standard, so they are reliable.

It needs to make much more effort with self-employed NRPs, as the disparity between what they earn, what they spend and what they pay in CM is disgraceful.

Those on JSA need to pay a lot more than £5 a week. £20 should be the minimum, and if that makes the NRPs life tough, then good, that's the price you pay when you're a parent - your child eats before you do.

If the NRP fails to pay, then arrears should be deducted the following month from source. If that leaves them short, see above.

If they still refuse to pay then passports should be withdrawn. If they can't afford CM, they can't afford holidays.

Next, driving licences withdrawn. And if people are worried about not being able to work without their car then they'll be more inclined to pay. There is also the threat of "you won't get any money if I lose my job", we'll I'm not getting any money anyway! While you jet off on holiday with your girlfriend and go on golfing weekends with your mates in your brand new Audi.

Then jail. Which I imagine would be a pretty effective deterrent.

Seriously, not providing for your own children should be a criminal offence. If the mother decided to contribute as much money and effort as the NRP father often does, she'd be charged with neglect. That's unfair. And sexist.

We need to make non-payment of child maintenance as socially unacceptable as drink driving.

[JessesGirl]

Three times I told the CSA where the DTs father lives, they however 'are unable to find him'. I've given up

[SheHasAWildHeart]

I can just about understand when they say that finding the real income of someone self employed is difficult, but when someone is employed by a large firm, someone who pays their taxes via PAYE, I don't understand why CMS can't find their income, why they can't just deduct it. They're quick enough to do it when they need it.

[SheHasAWildHeart]

I actually genuinely thought the CMS would be better than CSA but all they've done is change their telephone number. Everything else is the same.

[Stylingwax]

On the other side, CMS having had no response from DP's work as to his salary (work say they were never contacted), went on the last years P60. Great, but post that P60 he lost his job, was unemployed for 3 months (we still paid maintenance from our limited savings because it wasn't the kids fault) then was only able to find a job which paid 1/3 less. CSA recalculated the payments to the new salary. But CMS when they came in as I said calculated it at the old, and so currently he is paying over 1/3 of net pay.
People should pay for their kids, and he does, and when we had our two we didn't declare them to the CSA or whatever it's called because I figured it wasn't fair on them to drop the maintenance, but considering that his ex doesn't let him see their kids at all the while thing does piss me off a bit.
We'd rather pay more and see them more to be honest.

[crusoe16]

Other than their utter incompetence what baffles me most about the system is

1. that CB can't be split to reflect shared care
   
   
2. that maintenance can be reduced because of the 'NRP' living with children that are not theirs wtaf?
   
   
3. that there are no written guidelines as to what maintenance should cover and be used for

[Stylingwax]

I do think the NRP paying less if they live with kids who are not their's TOTALLY bonkers. Kind of feel anyway that it shouldn't be reduced even if they have more. As if you have more children within a relationship you have to consider the finances, it's not like the government goes 'oh hang on they're having another so let's just tax them a bit less'.

[AskBasil]

It's about time child maintenance was treated exactly the same as benefit fraud and tax evasion.

If the government were serious about putting a stop to financial abuse, it would do so. It throws resources at benefit fraud (a tiny % of all claims) while pretending it can do nothing about the 2/3 of financially abusive parents who don't pay maintenance.

Just abolish all these shitty agencies and get the fucking law onto them.

[Ilovemygsd]

What confuses me the most is this. My ex who has had no contact with my ds for 8 years, he's now 9, pays a mortgage and runs a van yet he tells Csa he earns £100 a week self employed. Surely hmrc would be picking up on this as tax evasion as well as Csa knowing full well he's lying. He's also got 6k worth of arrears, even with his 2 material assets they can't seem to get my money. They say it went to bailiffs? It's previously been to court to prove he owes the money. But nothing?

[Whenisitbedtime]

There are numerous threads already about this. The one I posted on most recently was from last year and includes a link to a petition to criminalise people who don't financially support their children.

It is neglect and should be treated as such.
I've never had a penny for DS9 and yet he goes off on expensive holidays etc.

Unfortunately not enough people have signed the petition for it to be considered.

[kittybiscuits]

I would want us to get to a stage where it is socially completely unacceptable as well as illegal to shirk financial responsibility for your children. And where the number of divs who come on threads like this talking about means testing and manicures etc is pathetically small.

[Muddlingalongalone]

I haven't used the CMS as I am "luckier" than many & ExH pays the minimum amount on time every month. My issues are twofold:

1. minimum amount is no where near the amount it actually costs for the children. Childcare is £1200 a month & ExH is required to pay £390. So before they are housed, fed or clothed he's paying 1/3rd.
   How is that fair or just?
   The amount payable should be based on actual costs.
   
   
2. why are my children entitled to less money from their father because a child who is not related to him resides in his house?

[HelenaDove]

Im not a parent but is anyone else wondering why this isnt a pinned thread and appearing at the top of other boards.

[TheFormidableMrsC]

This is such a red rag issue for me. My ex-h pays below CMS minimum to "teach me a lesson". CMS have been USELESS. Ex resigned from his own company, then became self employed, then let company go bust so that he didn't have to submit court ordered audited accounts to me. He can give up work at will, supported by OW, in order to avoid any investigation. Yet they live the life of riley, new cars, holidays, jewellery, half a million pound house yet can't support his son properly. I am now about to start proceedings under The Children's Act as it is the only loophole I have found and this is only because DS has a diagnosis of autism, therefore a "disability". I should not have to be doing this. However, I have no choice. The whole system absolutely stinks and needs a massive overhaul with much tougher penalties. Nobody should be allowed to get away with treating their child like this.

[Amy214]

My daughters father only pays £34 a week for her and i fought very hard with the cms to get that and it isn't enough to cover clothes, food, nappies and wipes.
I have repeatedly told them that he is earning more, he commited benefit fraud. But because it isn't the end of the tax year they can't access the hmrc records because i don't have proof of his earnings e.g wage slips. Where am i supposed to get them from? He has over £1000 arrears but we have yet to see them. What would happen if i refused to look after/pay for my daughter? It would be classed as neglect and i would have social services on my back and my daughter would probably be removed from me and placed into care.

[TheFormidableMrsC]

AyeAmarok. Fantastic post and I 100% agree with everything you say.

Don't they always drive Audi's

[eyebrowsonfleek]

There needs to be more inter-agency data sharing.

If you claim an income of £100 per week, this figure should be used when you get a mortgage, loan, credit card or other credit checked thing like a rental agreement.

The loopholes that the self-employed use need to be ended. No more using the company to hide income.

Not paying child maintenance should be seen as more serious than tax evasion. There are people on MN owned 5 figure sums. Why are these parents not in prison or having their car and house sold?

CMS needs to start chasing payment quicker. (Day after missed payment not weeks later)

Judging from reading stories on here they need to be forced to keep data confidentiality. Nobody should be scared to claim because they are worried about their abusive partner discovering their address.

£4 billion in unpaid maintenance is a scandal. That money could make the world of difference to children.

[AskBasil]

What really angers me is that this shit has been going on for about half a century now and no government has had the balls to stand up against Men's Rights Activists to say "no, you have a moral and social duty to financially support any children you help to produce and we are going to use HMRC to ensure that you are not allowed to evade that duty".

The CSA was the first attempt to hold absent fathers (because it is mainly fathers, it's only about 10% mothers) responsible for the support of their own children. The Thatcher government soon backed down and mollified dead-beat dads by reducing maintenance to poverty levels and ensuring that NRP's weren't too badly affected by having a child.

The fact that the resident parents (mainly women) have their lives changed forever, that we have to re-structure our lives due to children, is not important.

You only have to look at how the government treats maintenance, to see that we are nowhere near equality. If women and children's lives mattered, the state would use its agencies to ensure that NRP's comfort and convenience was not prioritised over children's needs.

[GinAndSonic]

Are they really going to treat it as income for tax credits etc?

[kittybiscuits]

Right with you on the Audis....

[SheHasAWildHeart]

Am going to write to my (female & Labour) MP today and see what her position is about the way CMS and maintenance is handled.