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Hi everybody,
I'm speaking on behalf of my son as he's not very good at doing this and 'mum' is better at explaining.
Sole responsibility of 3 children for past ten years and never received any financial help from their mother. Between the two of us and other family members, we have provided for them. The eldest has moved out so there are now the two youngest age 13 and 15. The mother has never supported them either financially or emotionally. Even saying to her that they are her children as well so she's equally responsible for them just fell on deaf ears so we gave up. No birthday or xmas cards, no days out, no phone calls or visits, and only contacts once in a blue moon. The kids have no interest in her at all.
To cut a long story short circumstances change, redundancy, illness, retirement, and being unable to financially support as much.
After a lot of persuading he has applied to CMS (4th Dec 2021) for maintenance. As the so-called mother is also on benefits (she has gone on to have another 3 kids) she has to pay the minimum amount.
The letter my son received states that payments are worked out from 14/12/2021 and the first collection date is 08/03/2022 and even then have to allow 5 working days for the payment to reach his bank account. The first payment is £33 18 (includes arrears) and the amount she owes to date is £56.00.
He phoned the CMS to ask why is the first payment to be received so long after applying and was told 'well that is the date you will receive it'.
Does it really take that long to start receiving payments? It will be click and collect. She receives her benefit payments on the 20th of the month.
Thank you to all that reply.
Hi,
am not sure why they take so long for 1st payment to come through, maybe a lot of red tape/procedure that slows things down. As it will be on Collect and Pay, that will probably be their reason for delay, as they have to manage the bank transfers etc. When I signed up to them, it took them about 2-3 months sort things out and tell me what I should pay and when.
@bill337
Thank you for your reply Bill337. Yes, I meant Collect and Pay Lol! It's a long time isn't it?
@tpot16 you could call again and make formal complaint. can ask for case worker to look into it.
@bill337 Hi, So I'm back with an update.
No payment was received for March and CMS sent my son an email saying that she hasn't paid and they are looking into it.
He received a letter dated 28/03/2022 saying that child maintenance payments have changed that now states that the payment date is 7/06/2022 and it takes about 5 days to reach his account and the amount has now gone down to £31.32 from £33.18 including arrears. The arrears to date is £129.00.
I know the mother doesn't want to pay anything and will try anything to get out of paying maintenance but she's had it easy for over ten years and the amount she's being told to pay is peanuts. I text her and asked why she was not paying maintenance and she text back that I was harassing her and was going to report me to the police. I asked her to answer the question but she ignored me.
The letter also states that the mother has started receiving benefits. But she's been receiving benefits for over 15 years and the CMS knows she's on benefits because they must have done the checks and also worked out how much she should pay prior to this.
My son has sent a message (after trying to contact on phone but the message said they are not taking any calls) in his journal asking for an explanation but received a message that they will contact within 7 days. He's no further forward since applying for maintenance in December 2021.
What is the point in paying the £20.00 fee for Collect and Pay when nothing happens? Such a confusing department to deal with.
I would raise a complaint, or at least start the process. I cannot see why there is a delay - if she is on benefits, then the money should be take out of those before she gets them.
@actd Thank you for your reply.
My son is going to see what the CMS is going to say in reply to the message he sent.
But yes, they should take it out of her benefits before she gets them. Don't know why they haven't because as I said in my last post this has been going on since Dec 2021.
This is the reply from CMS today - Our Response on above Query/Clarification:
At the start of your case we were assessing the paying parent as being on benefit and we requested that the
benefit deduct payments and pass them to us. We sent this request on 08/01/2022
On 23/03/2022 a duplicate notification was received confirming the paying parent was on benefit which is
why you have received the letter stating the paying parent is on benefit.
When we received the duplicate notification of the paying parent being on benefit our system automatically
sent another deduction request. The benefit agency takes 8 weeks to send the first payment, this is why
your payment schedule is showing your next payment is due in June.
Even though the schedule shows the next payment is due in June this does not mean that the paying parent
is not liable for payments.
We have checked the benefit system and can see our deduction is in place. The reason why you have not
received a payment is because the benefit agency are taking other deductions from the paying parent. The
benefit agency have decided that these other deductions take priority over child maintenance, after the
other deductions are taken there is not enough money for our payment to be taken.
Arears will continue to build on your case from the effective date - 14/12/2021 until we are able to collect
payments.
I've copied and paste this.
hi, seems like this could possibly be a dead end. if some people are so determined to avoid paying then chances are they will get away with it. do you know if they have any assets like properties or getting rental income? CMS can take those into account but would have to chase them to action it.
never heard of that before, but the arrears are building, so you should get payment at some time in the future, but could be a long time
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