1st time CMS help

Cks would charge you an extra 20% on top of amount payable and then from the amount your ex receives they would deduct 4%. This is only for collect and pay where you have a history of not paying.

What you can actually do is open a case with CMS and pay £20 to do so. They then work out how much you should pay and then you can pay that amount directly to your ex without any further CMS fees. Just keep proof of payment or ensure it is paid via bank transfer with the payment clearly identifiable and you would then be fine.

Hope this helps.

@Vik2001 they have option called Direct pay. with that you just sent money direct to your ex's bank account, and you don't pay charges. the other option is called collect and pay. They use this as enforcement if a parent is not paying. with that they add 20% onto the payments.

to add to the above, make the reference in your payment "child maintenance" - that way it is crystal clear what the money is for, and CMS can't later come back and say it's for something else (has happened before)

Help guys. My ex is going through her solicitors for everything. I made a proposal for child maintenance which is very close to what the cms calculator showed. However now her solicitor is asking I show them my last 3 payslips to prove I'm being truthful.  Should I be showing solicitor my payslips or not? They said if I dont show it they will file a case with cms.

Does it put me at any disadvantage showing payslip for when finances come up or anything....

Also if I did direct pay via cms if circumstances change and I get more overnights how easy is it for me to adjust payments? Do I have to open a new case with cms each time? Or do I have the flexibility to change the payments myself via direct pay

You don't have to provide payslips, however, if you have nothing to hide then no harm providing them. You will need to declare earnings to sort out finances anyway. 

Also, whilst usually the advice is to try to avoid CMS being involved especially if you have variable pay, considering your ex has a solicitor who will know what they're doing, if it was me, I'd just open up a CMS case myself and let them calculate how much to pay and then just pay that amount directly to the ex. Saves all the hassle. 

If you get overnights (get it agreed in court order or consent order) you just need to update the CMS with a copy and they recalculate the amount payable.

If it was just you and ex working it out then would be easier to just use online calculator as you can make changes/adjustments easier and quicker but as she is using a solicitor who will query things anyway, then you might aswell open a CMS case. 

I agree, for the sake of the one off £20 fee, opening a case with CMS resolves the issue, and pretty much takes it out of the hands of the solicitor. Whatever you do, do NOT agree a one off payment instead of paying child maintenance, otherwise you will and up paying that in addition to child maintenance.

@Daddyup hi I keep getting worried about cms when I don’t even have a child i keep thinking that even if I’ve labelled it as child maintenance and have proof of standing orders that the cms can still just say I’m in arrears and take whatever they want off me and it’s making me anxious because I don’t want to be in any arrears when I’ve definitely payed 

@actd so if I did this there’s no way cms can say I’m in arrears for example if the resident parent was to make up that I wasn’t paying when I was 

If you can prove that you are paying (ie you bank statement clearly states "child maintenance" as the reference, and it's for the amount (or more if you chose to overpay voluntarily) that CMS assess, then they have no basis to say you are in arrears, and in reality, there is no reason why they would do so.

@actd so basically if I pay what I’m told to with proof there is no way they can say I’m in. Arrears and charge me more for this