Can my partner get help with his costs?

April 17, 2019

I will defend myself first because it seems I need to. My partner is in the army and his now ex took his three children and moved 280 miles away, and admited it was to make sure ‘you never see my kids again’. To see the kids he pays £240 in fuel alone to have them friday night to sunday lunch time as they are in school. She refused contact when he took the children to his grandmothers where they all had beds as the barracks he lived on wouldn’t be able to supply him welfare housing for just a weekend, he would have had to pay for the full month and even then they usually didn’t have one free. So we have compressed our money as much as possible and bought a house, the only way to afford it was with a government scheme so this meant it had to be where we are currently as it was a Scottish Government scheme. All my money goes to the running of a house with 4 bedrooms and I have had to sell my car and walk 20 miles(40 in total) to work each day because we can only afford his car to go and get the kids. Please note my car was a peugeot 208 06 plate – not very expensive. He pays pennies off of £500 a month in CSA – again defending myself I was a child of split parents but my father didn’t want to see me and he never paid. My partner thinks the world of his kids, he wants to speak to them every day, know how their day was and how school and their friends are. He wants to teach his son to ride his bike. But in the last two months she has refused to let him call because he cannot come and get them, because he is deployed. She is now with a new partner and has even text bragging about all her money because he has bought her a new car and done up the kitchen etc. and that is fine it is her life but I don’t see anything wrong in us asking for a reducation in costs to see the kids that we love. I just do not know how to go about asking if we can get help, I believe a father is important to a child life, I don’t care if mum and dad can’t stand each other. The kids loose out. They loose out on a loving father.

CMS have made up payments to take even though I can prove I owe nothing

April 8, 2019

Well, on Wednesday of this week I received a letter completely out of the blue, from the DWP, stating that they had given my bank a court order to take out £180 / month commencing the following Monday. Upon calling them that day, they advised that the arrears are from a period between 2013 and 2016, that they had been passed on by the CSA, and that they could give me no information as to how this has been calculated. They advised that they had sent 2 previous letters, but to an old address.

I informed them that since 2013, I have had a family based agreement, which has been paid on the same day every month for the past 6 years. I advised that I could provide bank statements to prove payments but they would be from a closed account which is no longer operating. Luckily, the bank have advised they can send me statements going back to 2013, but it would take 2 weeks. I advised the CMA of this, and that I would provide my statements, along with tax returns for the period in question, to enable them to calculate what I should have been paying.

They advised that they are not interested in tax returns just evidence of what I have been paying. When I asked how then, if they are unsure how the arrears has been calculated, how they would work out if the arrears is correct? They did not have an answer. When I pointed out that I have had pretty much no contact from the CSA for the past 6 years, and they would have no idea what I have been paying, and therefore there calculation is likely to be based on misinformation, there was just silence. When I asked why, if I owe money from 6 years ago, I have not heard anything from the CSA regarding arrears again I was met with silence, followed by confirmation, that in 2 working days time, £180/ month will be taken from me.

I have no idea how it had been calculated and neither do CMS. I have bank statements coupled with tax returns that will demonstrate that in fact I have been overpaying based on earnings for the period in question, yet they are not interested. It’s not even a case of guilty until proven innocent. Apparently I’m guilty even if I can prove innocence.

I proved that son was out of college but CSA won’t listen

April 7, 2019

I have a son who is 20 years old in December 2019 he no longer attends college of which he was only doing one day a week, but the CSA are taking £170 from my wages for him, i have been paying regularly but i changed jobs and after my son said he was no longer in college i never set the payment up again, i have a solicitor involved at my own cost but she is getting nowhere aswell, they don’t listen when we tell them my son is out of college, i have even informed them where he works, but no listening. I am at my wits end. £780 a month to an ex that is fraudulently claiming maintenance and child benefit, i mean who is there actually sticking up for the fathers. i need help and i don’t know where to turn anymore.

Ex fraudulently claimed a year’s maintenance and CSA did nothing!

April 5, 2019

From Jan 2018 to Dec 2018 I was paying CSA £50 a week for my son. In Dec 2018 I found out my ex partner had moved into a 1 bedroom flat and my son had moved in with his sister also from Jan 2018 so for a year I was paying CSA to her and she never informed CSA he wasn’t living with her.

I informed CSA who said they’d investigate, I heard nothing so presumed they’d closed the case but when I got my wages on the 15th of march £350 had been taken out by CSA I phoned them and they said they needed evidence my son wasn’t living with her??? Dentist , college , doctors are all registered with his sister , my ex partner lives in a 1 bedroom flat ??? Told them all this but they done a child benefit check and as she was still claiming it ,to them he was still living with her I pointed out everything I knew but until she stopped claiming child benefit there was nothing I could do ?? I phoned child benefit and they said as long as she was passing money on it didn’t matter if he was living with her or not , so I’m stuck in a circle going round and round and nobody will help, I think it’s fraud not only from me but my son and the system any help please 😠😠😠

Child Support state I haven’t paid enough when I can prove I can

April 4, 2019

Once I stepped outta prison I was slammed with a childsupport payment by two different county’s. between the two they garnished $1,009 a month which it was no problem, if I owe then so be it. My Kids is one case are now 35 and 34 years old. I’ve asked for full audits from them both and what I got was what they call a simple audit which tell me nothing of what I need to file a case. Besides one child shouldn’t be on any case because her case was separate and I some how have payed that one off but they threw her in with the other child’s case. Their simple audit says I’ve only payed a total of 22,000. I myself on their wed site I can only go back as far as 4/06/2006 for payment history. So without 6 1/2 years missing I’ve payed them over $85,000. They have suspended my drivers lic. and I’ve been arrested for it and lost my vehicle and it was their mistake because the payments are taken straight out of my disability check. I need help. Please.

CSA created a DEO when I owe them nothing!

April 3, 2019

I have been paying child support into both of my kids Bank accounts in the sum of £160 per month the combine figure since April 2018 to December 2018. This is not in dispute and children mother accept receipt of payments. I have always maintained payments each month, I received a letter from CSA for non-payments, however I sent proof of payments via the CSA Client Portal.

Therefore, I can’t understand on what grounds CSA sent deduction from earnings order (DEO) to my employer. I received 2 letters dated 23rd November 2018 from CSA about issuing of DEO When I called CSA I was told by the gentleman I spoke with that the DEO was sent to my Employer due to non-payment of child support since June 2018, he acknowledge receipt I sent of all my Bank receipts confirming Payments into each of the kids bank account and further stated that the Children mother accepts the payments are for child support, however because I paid the money into the Kids account and not the Mother accounts, he doesn’t accept those payments hence the reason for the DEO.

Furthermore, a previous child support case that was cancelled by Children Mother in 2012 which she obtains a Court order 2009 without my Knowledge of the case for the sum of £9,000. CSA has brought forward and included in DEO. From speaking to a Elaine of CSA I was told that if a case is cancelled then there should be no money owing and such balance should not be brought forward into a new case.

The DEO should have never been sent to my Employer as I did not stop or refuse to make child support payment. This is causing me great financial burden and I am unable to support my other 3 Kids, it is not fair for 1 Mother to get £540 per month and the other 3 Mother gets nothing. I made numerous phone calls to CSA since December 2018 and each time I am told they will ask the person dealing with the case to call me back. This has never happened.

Inefficient CMS causes more problems than it solves

April 2, 2019

CSA/CMS has to be the most inefficient agency I have ever had to deal with.

When you read the news story about the exploitable loopholes in the system, it seems pretty clear that they are aware of the scale of the problem and yet there are Billions of unpaid child maintenance, contributing to child poverty all over the country. It beggars belief that single parents are left to struggle on their own for day to day care of their child.

With after school child care, commuting, and other work related expenses, the cost of working is made unsustainable for many single parents who will then fall back on a part time job and rely on benefits. This does not make sense. More should be done to collect unpaid maintenance so that the government does not have to pay the shortfall of absentee parents.

I was married for 15 years to an abusive partner. Following his arrest, I finally got it together to leave with my 2 children. I had always been the main earner, so at least I had the resources to house myself. After 2 years in family court and gruesome proceeding, I am able to move on. I found myself with quite a lot of legal bills and the sole care of the children and decided to apply for child maintenance through CMS.

I first spoke to Child option, who are free advice service. They asked me if I knew how much he father earned. I did as we had just gone over divorce and he had to disclose his income, provide bank statements and so on. At the time of application he was earning £580 Net a week.

Child option gave me an estimate figure of how much he should pay which should have been about £110/ week. This would not even cover the cost of the after school care for my youngest one but would have been a most welcome top up to my income. I work full time and earn what is considered a decent salary. However, as explained above, after paying for the regular cost of living in London, the child care of the 2 children and travel to work, I am left struggling to make end meet.

I got a decision from CMS in about 2 week, but to my shock they decided that the father should only pay £7 a week. What?

My ex is a sub contractor. Ah! the famous loophole! They based their calculation on the last tax return he filed which was in for the year ending April 2017, when we were still married and he was not working albeit teaching classes in the evening.

I got back to CMS, asking for a variation, on the basis that this did not reflect his current earnings. I provided them with all the evidence I obtain from divorce proceeding, however they said they could not rely on it. He was suppose to provide the evidence but was under no obligation to do so (??). The outdated tax return supersedes any other evidence and they had the cheek to tell me this was a “live update” from HM Revenue.

To top it all off, he is not even paying the meagre £30 a month he is supposed to and collecting it from him will be virtually impossible.

Reading the many sorries out there of similar situation, WHY is this endemic situation not being addressed as it should be? I am today considering quitting my job as I might be better off financially, less stressed and spending more time with my children. This is the true cost of the inefficiency of CMS.

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