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I have a case with the CMS with 3 children and 2 mothers. Mother 1 is in respect of a 19 yr old (child 1) who I was led to believe was in ft education. Mother 2 is in respect of 2 girls school age (children 2 and 3). Mother 1 has received 1/3 and Mother 2 has received 2/3.
Mt payments are renewed every September. Last August I contacted CMS and advised them that I had been informed that child 1 was not in ft education and his case should be closed. CMS advised they would automatically take him off case once they receive confirmation. I asked them to check. Mother 1 failed to respond to them so they assumed he was in ft education. I heard otherwise and informed them of this and asked them to put her to proof. They done nothing and advised me to continue paying. I did.
The CMS have now advised me, 8 months later, that child 1 has not been in ft educ and Mother 1 has not been entitled to CMS since 1 September 2017. I had continued to pay Mother 1 until yesterday. CMS advise that therefore the payments to Mother 2 increase, this is fair enough. Also, that they have backdated the increase to Mother 2 until September 2017 so i have to pay 'arrears' to Mother 2 as well. This is not a problem to me.
My issue is that i have now paid Mother 1 8x monthly payments that the CMS now state should not have been paid. I asked them if i coudl recover this and would they recover it for me. They advise they have no legal obligation to seek to recover overpayments and to go to Citizens Advice Bureau. I have put in a complaint as i warned them in August 2017 that child 1 was not in ft education but they did not seek to prove otherwise.
So Mother 1 makes a fraudulent claim in a sense, i advise the CMS in advance that this may be the case, they do nothing, i pay Mother 1 for 8 months, the CMS then say i should not have paid her as she was not entitled and i now have to pay the money to Mother 2 but they will not recover any money from Mother 1.
So i end up paying this money out twice and can only recover it privately whicih may end up costing me more in solicitor fees than what is owed.
Is this right? Or do the CMS have an oblgation to help recover overpayments? Payments were made as direct pay though and not collected by CMS.
I find that rather odd since CMS certainly chased me for a single overpayment that my ex paid to me, and it was very clear that if I didn't pay it back voluntarily, they would take action to force me to repay. I would put in a complaint through their complaints procedure to see where that gets you - https://www.gov.uk/child-maintenance/complaints-and-appeals
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