[Solved] Existing Child Maintenance Arrangement Ending.

LHi there

All cases are in the process of moving over to the new scheme and they are encouraging parents to make their own family based arrangements where possible. Obviously this isn't workable for you so you or your ex can open a new claim under the new scheme.

You would need to pay an initial admin fee of £20 and tell them you wish to go onto the Direct pay service but don't have an address to communicate with the receiving parent. It might be that you will have to go onto the Collect and Pay service, in which case you would be charged a furhter 20% of the amount on top, the mother would be charged 4% on the amount she is to receive.

Once the existing case is closed I would advise that you put aside the calculated amount, otherwise you may find yourself in arrears as it can take weeks to sort out new claims. CM is calculated differently under the new scheme, here's a link to the CMS calculator, you can at least get a rough idea of how much you need to pay. If you pay into a pension I would advise defucting the amount you pay from your gross income before imputing it into the calculator.

www.gov.uk/calculate-your-child-maintenance

I'm surprised the CMO didn't discuss all the options with you, William our CMO expert should be along soon to give his response.

Best of luck

Hi Mojo and thanks for your swift reply. It's this 20% thing that I've got the problem with. I discussed this with CMO and they said that I wouldn't have to pay that as I've never missed a payment. I wasn't so sure as I've been told many different things by the CSA previously. The only options discussed with me were using social media to make contact with my ex, contacting a relative or getting the assessment myself for a £20 fee.
Direct pay would be the better option for both of us but obviously I can't do that.
I already pay £300 per month so the prospect of paying another £60 on top of that is not a pleasant one.

I believe that's correct, you are entitled to go on direct pay if you have always paid on time. I think there's a scheme where the bank can facilitate payments without revealing her current address.

The one off admin fee sounds like it would be the wayto go.

Here's a bit more info from Dad.info advice pages over on the main site, the last couple of paragraphs refer to your situation

https://www.dad.info/child-maintenance/the-child-maintenance-service

Thanks again I'll give that a read and I'll let you know how I get on.
Glad I found the forum, It's been very informative. Cheers.

Hello the pablo

It sounds as though you feel an arrangement through the Child Maintenance Service is the best way to go, however, you are worried about the fees associated with their Collect and Pay arrangement.

You can be reassured to know that you do not necessarily need to be in contact with your twins’ mother in order to have a Direct Pay arrangement. Instead, the Child Maintenance Service can securely pass her bank account details on to you, so you can start paying her directly.

If you do apply for a Direct Pay arrangement, you will avoid the 20% collection fee and will only have the £20 non-refundable application fee to pay. Your responsibility to pay will start from around the point you contact them or they contact you.

For more information on all the different ways to set up child maintenance and for a more personalised service, you would be welcome to call Child Maintenance Options again or alternatively, you can visit their website at http://www.cmoptions.org.

The DWP have a sorting out separation web-app that you may find useful. It offers help and support to separating and separated families. The link is: www.dad.info/divorce-and-separation/sorting-out-separation.

Regards

William

Thanks for the info William. I will contact them and get it sorted and will give an update just in case anybody else finds themselves in a similar situation.

Just a quick update. I called the CMS to tell them that I will pay directly but surprise surprise she has been in contact with them to say that she wants to use their collect and pay service. They had already sent out all the paperwork confirming this which I received the following day. The current state of play is that the haven't yet given me a definite answer about whether I can directly or not. They said that they could see no reason why I couldn't as I have never missed a payment but did not give me anything definitive. Instead they me told me that they would contact me in the coming week.
I can only assume that they are going to contact my ex to tell her my preferred method of payment.
So my question now is. what if she doesn't agree to this?
Knowing exactly what she's like she will not agree and will want to see me pay the maximum amount possible.

I think the fact that you have never been late with payments puts you in a strong position to insist on Direct Pay. The link I gave you talks about the scheme where you can arrange to pay into an account without having access to her address, if she doesn't agree I would certainly appeal on the grounds that you have never missed a payment and shouldn't be penalised in this way.

Best of luck

Thanks Mojo. Yes I read that link and the fact that child benefit is now payable potentially to age 20! I'm going to give them another call tomorrow as I certainly don't want to be falling into arrears with these people.

Hi There,
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When I spoke to CMS, they told me that unless I had a history of failed payments, they weren't able to enforce collect and pay, even though my ex had requested it, they told me that unless I agreed that it was how I wanted o pay, then they would go with direct pay from me, and the only way that would change would be if I failed to make a payment and then they would enforce collect and pay.
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My wife was told the same thing when she was setting things up with her ex too so I don't think you will have an issue, but as Mojo has said you would be able to appeal if they did try and go down the collect and pay route.
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GTTS