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

Not an Audi for my XH, a new BMW though, and no maintenance, ever!

Oh exH brother buys and sells cars so exh really enjoys turning up in a different sports car every time he comes to pick DD up!

It could be worse but I suspect I've had an easier time of it than most because it's a fairly straightforward case.

However, despite having recent payment information from my ex himself, CMS simply won't go from those figures and instead use out of date HMRC information (rather than the latest HMRC info). They'd only recalculate if his actual wage is 20% more than the figure they've used, and it isn't. This means the figure he's given works out at about 8% for one child.

8% is simply not good enough. If an RP gave that much, or 12%, or 25%, etc, the children would be experiencing neglect unless the RP's income was tremendous. The RP would be prosecuted. SS would ne involved. My ex is for some reason allowed to increase his payment contribution and therefore pay less for his child...why?? In the world of the RP, the child comes before the pension.

Maintenance should be paid by the government at a rate of approximately 50% of the average costs of raising a child. This should then be recovered from the NRP and a debt should accrue should they not be able to pay it in full. That debt should be chased. Debts to the RP are commonplace right now and there's no incentive to chase those debts properly. This isn't going to happen though. No government has the clout.

Finally, and very importantly IMO, letters to the NRP should be very clear about what it costs to raise a child. They should always include at least a half page section that makes it clear that the proposed amount is a legal minimum and amounts to X percent of the cost of raising their child/ren. Far too many NRPs, my ex included, are allowed to delude themselves into thinking their contributions are generous. This section should also make it clear that the payment has been calculated with contact time in mind and reductions reflect the fact that when a child is with the NRP, the NRP is responsible for having the things the child needs.

Is there any reason why a fixed proportion of earnings couldn't be deducted from pay at source via tax code? Those wishing to be more generous could then pay on top. Obviously wouldn't work for the feckless wastrels who lie about working at all, but should help some people. Criminal sanctions for evasion.

TheFormidableMrsC What is the loophole you've found??

Ilovemygsd. I am making an application under The Children's Act, I can do this because of my son's diagnosis. It is essentially there to protect those who have not married but is more commonly being used.

You might find this link helpful...

www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed143067

Could someone please explain to me why the CMS /CSA ask you if you want to "write off the arrears" that you're owed?

I cannot get my head around why they would think that was ever likely to be a positive step...

I hope to christ it's not purely to make their stats look better.

In short Aye it's to get the case off their books. It's not been easy to get the NRP to pay and they'd rather stop spending money on it and close the case instead.

Thank you TheFormidableMrsC, I am filling it out as we speak as my son also has autism, I can't find anywhere what the fee is tho?

Sorry to bother you again TheFormidableMrsC but do u know who/what this is regarding not previously attending mediation

Section 4d

A child is one of the prospective parties by virtue of rule 12.3.1

When I left my DH I asked him to pay CM voluntarily.
Although he "decided" to pay less than I initially asked for, I just accepted it and breathed a huge sigh of relief.......because I knew that, as he is self employed, he could so easily have played dirty and going through official channels would have resulted in me and my DCs getting virtually nothing.
Just wanted to add that I gasped in disbelief at the fact that they can make NRP pay for up to 3 DCs only. WTF!!!

Ilovemygsd....please don't apologise! I've had wine, I will have a look tomorrow...I have yet to make my application, am not doing it until September when DS is back at school as, in my experience, hearings can be set for far sooner than you'd imagine...and I can't do that right now! I think what you are referring to is that you both have to had "attempted" mediation. My ex-h has thus far ignored the mediator, I have been, I have also just received my MIAM form which means that I can press ahead with the application. There is no guarantee that we won't be ordered to return...given my ex's twattish behaviour. So, my advice is, find a mediator, try and get your ex to co-operate, if he won't get your form and press ahead

Further...Ilovemygsd I don't have to pay a fee due to the shit situation my ex left me in thus I don't know what it is. If not on gov website, call your local court and ask them...they are so very helpful!

Thanks, I've filled all forms in already, was such a shit situation myself so hopefully ticked the right boxes and won't have to mess around with mediation :) can't believe after 8 years of Csa doing f all there is the loophole I never knew about. So fingers crossed. I'm posting them 2moz

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

Yy to this.

With respect to self employment, surely it should be possible to say "an average employed IT person with x years of experience earns this, therefore that is your payment as a contractor unless you can demonstrate otherwise"

In fact, setting the payment at 50% of the child's costs as a default and allowing NRPs to make the case why it should be less for them might be a better approach.

Agree that the debt should be to the government and pursued by them en masse via tax code, passport suspension etc.

I think the problem is it is seen as a women's issue..as the mojority claiming CM are female so has far less importance.

My own CSA case is closing...I am yet to phone CMS simply as I worry opening up a can of worms with my ex.. I get exactly £5 a week the same as I have for the last 8 years..He has no intention of getting a job... Someone found him on a dating site and the put occupation retired He was 40 !!!!!....He has no contact and does not support his child.

I don't care about the money but I do care that I have knowledge he is alive...Incidentally he changed his name and I found this out from letter from CSA..I can at least tell my DC thier dads name when he is older.

The biggest issue here seems to be self employed... Surely HMRC and CSA working together not only would RP get maintenance but also appropriate level of tax would be paid.

Also another big yes to no penalties for deceiving the CMS... No siezure of assets for areas..

They still seem to want the easy cases.

I just called CMS having not received my final decision and payment schedule way back in may when they did the annual review.
Their computer shows they have tried them cancelled generating letters to both myself and my ex, it shows their calculation in may increased maintenance by £50 per month and yet the only letter sent out since then was to my ex in July saying the payments weren't changing.
There is now some poor woman there wading through the mess that is my case with them to try to figure out wtf is going on and how much I should be receiving, and will be calling me back soon. Apparently.

"I think the problem is it is seen as a women's issue.."
And I don't think it's going to change until we get a female MP in a position of power who is also a single mother. Instead we have to put up with the likes of Jess Phillips who's too busy prancing about on TV and I don't even know the name of the Minister for Women - is it worth sending her an email?

Ilovemygsd, that is great news. Please do keep me posted, via PM if you prefer. I will do the same. I hope that this information is useful to others, there must be very many in the same situation that are unaware of this!

Good luck!

The onus on the applicant to provide proof is what really bothers me. How can I provide proof of my exH earnings? I don't live with him anymore.

He is also self-employed and seems to be getting away with paying far less than he should be every month.

And yes, he drives an Audi. knobhead

Staying but a resident parents pays way over a third of their income to support their dc.

I am going to CMS this week and tell them that I've texted exH. And if they fob me off I will be back on this page RAGING!

I would like whoever wrote the opening post to expand on this:

"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."

I thought CSA was found to be unfit for purpose and the recommendation was to replace it with CMS to "improve the service overall". Why now is there an enquiry into CMS - has that found to be unfit for purpose to? why did the previous inquiry and recommendations not work? How many more enquiries before the government get it right? Who is overseeing this and how does the whole review process work?

My story is different but I appreciate the CSA have let people down time and time again,

In our case, ex p left, we had a private agreement, he broke it so I called the CSA, they did their thing and now I get a monthly payment from ex p for our 2 boys. It's always been fine, they've always kept me up to date and I've never had an issue.

However we've had a letter to say it's stopping and we need to make other arrangements, I'm hoping he'll just carry on paying via standing order.

I think if they're going to take into consideration other non related children residing with the nrp when calculating CSA then they should also take into account both wages brought into the naps new family.

My DP's income is used when calculating child benefit and tax credits/housing benefit etc for 2 children that aren't his because it's a household income. That's fine, but why isn't ex p's new wife's income taken into account when paying child support as its their household income?!