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Can anyone help with this question, if you have paid child maintenance in full and on time via BACs since the day of separation and ultimately divorce and continue to do so, is the mother within her right to write to the CSA asking them to force the father to use the system and incurring more cost, therefore more money is wasted that could be spent on the children. There is a shared parenting order in place. Anyone? The father has never defaulted. This cannot be fair and just?
I take it the mother has made an application to the Child Maintenance Service?
Well there is nothing to stop her from doing this, though it does seem a little odd if maintenance has been agreed and paid on time via a Family-based arrangement. I am not sure what her motivation could be. Is dad paying the amount that she would get via the CMS? The calculator for this can be found here. If she is not going to financially benefit from the application then I don't understand what she hopes to gain from it (sometimes when this happens it turns out that dad is paying more the the statutory amount and mum ends up getting less money).
The good news is that dad would go straight onto the Direct Pay scheme. Basically the CMS only involvement is to tell the paying parent the amount that they should pay over to the receiving parent. There is no charge for this service (other than a registration fee for the parent who makes the application).
The only way for dad to be placed onto the Collect and Pay scheme would be if he then went on Direct Pay and then missed Maintenance Payments.
I hope this is of help? Do you have any other questions?
Gooner
Thanks Gooner, that's really helpful. Yes it is the CMS. Sadly I think it has been done to cause potential stress on the father, but as I have stated he has never deferred so your response confirms what I thought, however she has asked for the payments to be made annually, can this be forced?
Support payments annually....Id be very surprised, indeed amazed if this can be forced upon anyone.
The CMS provide you with a weekly calculation or if you ask a monthly calculation.
Regards,
Dave
Thanks Dave, this is stated as an option by the mother on the letter sent from the CMS to the father....I'm certain this can't be enforced - as stated all payments made are correct, in full, and in accordance with the calculator. The father wants so much to support and enjoy the time he has with his children, though other issues are now arising... described by a legal man as a toxic approach by the mother... very sad really... of course for the father, but for the little children.
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