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Hi there,
I've been paying maintenance for my daughter for the past 6 years and have always paid on time, although I do keep having arguments with the CMS every year now regarding my works pension contributions.
I'm currently having my review for CMS and they are telling me that they use figures from the HMRC from April of this year to work out my income.
Now the problem is... in april my pension contributions went up from 2% to 3% ( as per uk law now), and in september I increased my pension contributions to 6%.
To put it another way, I've increased my monthly pension contributions for £45 per month to £ 169 per month.
Thinking ahead for the future of course.
Now, during phone calls with advisors on several occasions with the CMS. I am repeatedly being told that they wont take this increase into account unless it reduces my income by 25% ( according to their guidelines).
They say this Is due to my pension being a workplace pension and not a private pension.
Are the CMS right with this ???
As I've read through a lot of there booklets and information off their website and all I keep seeing is that pension contributions are taken into account before working out my weekly income ( used for calculating maintenance).
How can they say that there is a difference between a private pension and a work based pension.
Can I complain to them about this as I will be paying more maintenance than i should be doing ?
They basically told me that the 6% wouldn't be takin into account until my next review which is dec 2020.
Surely this cant be right ??
And help or advice is much appreciated
Thanks
hi,
this article talks alot about private pension contributions:
https://voiceofthechild.org.uk/kb/cms-deal-pension-contribution-levels-considering-variations/
quite confusing. i went to CMS gov calculator site, and it is asking: Do you get any of these benefits or State Pension?
maybe you can contact this advisory service and ask about state/private pensions/workplace pensions ttps://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/
I agree with Bill, worth going for the free advice.
One thing I will ask, are you on any benefits? If not, speak to your employers about doing a salary sacrifice for your pension. Firstly, this will reduce your salary as far as CMS is concerned, so there shouldn't be any question about whether it counts or not. Second, if you do the salary sacrifice, you also get the advantage of National Insurance reduction, so you get an extra benefit, completely legally over not using salary sacrifice. I will add that I'm not a financial adviser, so you do need to speak to your employer, and your pension provider to make sure of the facts.
Hi, thanks for your input, I'm not on any benefits as I work full time but I will look I to your advice as well as contine to argue with the cms themselves.
Thanks
I think they are trying to limit their workload, and the 25% movement is the way to do that. If the 25% wasn't in place they would be recalculating everyones assessment every time the ex thought you had earned a bonus or done some overtime - which would be impossible.
So I guess they have taken the figures HMRC has and do not want to reassess unless it is over the 25%. That said, I thought perhaps pension contributions may over ride that as they are stated as part of the standard calculation.
So no help to you I am afraid, just stating where I expect they are coming from.....
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