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Morning all,
Coming here for some advice as I know that there will be many of you that will have come across the situation that my wife and I find ourselves in.
both of us have experienced failings of the CMS as a paying Dad, receiving Mum and now a paying Mum.
My wife’s child turned 16 this year and finished secondary education in July. There is history of domestic abuse and coercive control at the hands of the child father which has spanned more than 12 years. We’ve had a lot of stress dealing with him and going through courts to get a Child Arrangements Order.
Unfortunately, he had turned her child against her and for the past four years she has not seen him.
We now find ourselves in a position where we don’t know what education her child is in, if any. We’ve had a nod towards a college by his previous school but the college will not give us any information or even confirm whether he is a pupil or not as it goes against GDPR.
We’ve raised this with the CMS, who don’t want to know and say they just check that child benefit is being paid. They refuse to speak with the other parent to get confirmation or proof of college and course etc.
We raised a request which got rejected, we’ve gone to mandatory reconsideration which was also rejected and now the next step is tribunal.
There is known history of benefit fraud by the father and we know he is working whilst claiming unemployment benefit. My wife is still owed a substantial amount of unpaid child maintenance from when she was the receiving parent which is not being paid due to being “unemployed”.
What can we do?
The CMS need to change how they operate as it is a punitive system to decent people.
hi, it seems not much can be done. if child benefit office has been told that child is still in full time education, an approved course, then CMS would expect paying parent to continue paying.
I recommend you join this support group for paying parents:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/239699060076601/?ref=share
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