Thanks for joining us on the forum – glad to have you here. You are welcome to post 24/7 but please note that whilst we have forum moderators we will only be moderating the forum during office hours. If though you need urgent crisis help, please contact Samaritans on 116 123.
Spurgeons and Dad.Info doesn’t investigate reports of abuse or neglect. But below, you can find advice on who to contact if you have concerns about a child or young person.
Reporting a concern
It can be difficult to know what to do if you think a child is at risk. It’s important to remember that if you’ve spotted things that don’t seem right, others will have too. Speaking up can make sure that child gets help as soon as possible.
The sooner you contact your local children’s social care duty team, the quicker they can act. They’re available 24 hours a day, and can make an anonymous report if that feels safer. If a child is in immediate danger, please call the police straight away by dialling 999.
Report child abuse or neglect to your local council
Use these links to get in touch with your local council:
Hello,
I need some advice my partner has stopped me from seeing my child even though we have a court order. I have been paying for the past 10 years direct to her bank and she has now gone to the csa and said I have never paid or not the correct amount they are not forcing me to pay by collect and pay and adding on 20% fee. phone calls upon phone calls they then said after 6 months it would go to direct pay and the 20% fee would come off when calling them to arrange this they said you can now pay direct pay but there is still a 20% fee for another 6 months is this correct can anyone guide me on this one i’m stuck as struggling to afford anything at the moment
I don't know anything about the CMS but you can enforce the court order. First you could try mediation which will be quicker and cheaper than court. If you don't think that will work you can apply to the court using form C79 which you can download from the www.gov.uk website. You can also get guidance on this from the advicenow.org.uk website which will help you do this without using a lawyer.
Hi,
CMS should only be putting a parent on collect and pay if they have missed payments and have been unreliable (or their new policy if there's evidence of domestic abuse). If you have wrongly been put on collect and pay, I suggest you put a complaint in. Can write to your MP and copy in correspondence@dwp.gov.uk
If parent has been taken off collect and pay after 6 months and moved to direct pay, then they should no longer be charged the 20% collect and pay fee.
I recommend you join this support group for paying parents:
https://facebook.com/groups/239699060076601/