Hi Guys,
So I don't know if anyone has had as bad an experience as me, but here goes...
My ex set up a case with the CMS back in the May 2019. To cut a long story short they sent me six letters to an incorrect address. I had never lived at that property and that was confirmed to me by HMRC and the electoral roll. I obviously did not receive these letters, however did speak to them on the phone at the end of August. They had backdated payments to May when these letters were sent and said i was in arrears.
During this time (Aug to December) my ex had agreed with me that i would pay her £260 a month instead of £380 a month (as on their payment plan) as i was still paying all of the family joint debts etc. She told me she would inform the CMS, However surprise surprise she didn't and is now claiming I have underpaid her for these months (completely my mistake for not following this up).
I appealed this in writing asking for a mandatory reconsideration. A few days after I sent the letter, a deductions from earnings order arrived through my door and was sent to my employer. I was then denied a mandatory reconsideration as "you cant apply for a mandatory reconsideration of a deduction from earnings order" I was actually asking them to look at the whole case again due to their errors.
I then agreed to pay off the arrears in the meantime if they would cancel the deductions from earnings order. This was agreed and i transferred them over £2000. Then surprise surprise my employer also deducts £800 from my salary that month. I received a payment plan from the CMS that stated they had set up a deduction from earnings order and the first payment was due on the 19th March 2020. However my employer has taken this from my January salary and sent this to the CMS. I phoned my work about this and said they have to act on the order as this is a legal requirement and there is nothing on their document that says the first payment was due on 19/3/2020.
To make matters worse, i realised this £2000 arrears payment i made actually included hundreds of pounds of "collect and pay fees". Surely if i make an arrears payment that should only be for the actual arrears? Not collect and pay fees that are now obsolete as my case has changed back to direct pay?
My ex is also playing the old "father has 0 days contact a week" card to extort more money as well - i have no court order to challenge this.
Is it just me or have I been completely done over here? Any advice please let me know.
No, you've been appallingly treated - this is their errorall along, so go and see your MP and also raise a complaint through the complaints procedure. You should definitely be looking to receive all fees back from them. As for the 0 days - do you have a court order for contact to say they stay with you at all? That wil give you evidence to back up your claim for a deduction.
No, you've been appallingly treated - this is their errorall along, so go and see your MP and also raise a complaint through the complaints procedure. You should definitely be looking to receive all fees back from them. As for the 0 days - do you have a court order for contact to say they stay with you at all? That wil give you evidence to back up your claim for a deduction.
Yes i've sent a letter of complaint so will wait and hear back from this. I've unfortunately got no court order as yet but I am in the process of raising court proceedings for contact. I understand the CMS can set contact as 1 day per week if there is a dispute? I see my daughter twice per week (2 nights).
When i was denied my previous mandatory reconsideration / complaint the gentleman was very unhelpful. He stated that with the arrears they admittedly did send the letters to an incorrect address, however they called me in June and i never answered my mobile (they left no voicemails and no text messages to call back). I never would have answered my phone to an unknown 0800 number. He says then can backdate payment to then because it was a correct mobile number but i never answered. My comeback to that is why would i have answered to an unknown number and if they had left a message of course i would have called back. Any thoughts on this?
Sad thing is I've no issue in paying child maintenance and i technically paid my ex-wife every month a minimum of £280.
hi,
agreed with actd that you should take this up with your MP. i got used to CMS' shoddy service. signed myself up. took them like 2-3 months to get hold of ex and work out payment schedule. no delays down to me. so for that they put me into arrears. no point in challenging it, as I didn't pay anything during that time, as i was waiting for their decision lol.
I'll wait and see what comes back from the CMS but if I have no luck (which i'm expecting) I will have a chat with my MP.
Does anyone know the answer to this:
When does the date of child maintenance liability start? Is it the day the partner with care contacts the CMS to open a case? Or is it the date they first make contact with the paying parent?
And final question (sorry!), if I am due a rebate, can the CMS rebate overpaid money and if so is this via cheque, bank transfer, or transfer the incorrect DEO amount taken from my salary back to my employer etc?
hi,
i registered with cms as paying parent on 5 march last year. so its from that date i make payments. they will not make you do any back-dated payment, no matter what arrangement there was before cms were called.
i heard some dads got money back when they over-paid. but also heard its very difficult and CMS not really bothered. your HR people dealt with CMS to do DEO. it would be good to speak to your HR team and ask for their help.
CMS certainly gave the impression they would take me to court if necessary when my ex made a single overpayment to me, so I would certainly keep on their backs to chase this up, if it looks as though they are letting it go.
So one final update on this case. I sent in a written letter of complaint to the CMS. Showed on their online portal they had received the letter on the messages section - date and "you sent us a letter". I waited a week - no response. A further week - no response. Though i'll leave it another 2 weeks and check.
So - wait until you hear this - i logged into the portal at the weekend. Any documentation that they had received my letter had been deleted. Where it had previously stated the date and "you sent us a letter" has completely disappeared.
Borderline corruption? Hugely illegal for a government service?
I've never experienced anything like this in my entire life. Shocking service and a complete disregard for my legal rights.
Who do i need to go through to get the maximum amount of compensation from these jokers?
hi,
send the document again. then phone to ask if they received it.
last time i sent them a court order using portal. they told me when they printed it, blank pages came out lol. and they asked me to post it to them instead, so I did.
You are not alone. The CMS get away with abuse of administrative power on a number of levels very frequently. Don’t give up - keep swinging and don’t let them get you down.
Something similar happened to me so I used to upload scanned copies of letters and then take a screen shot of the confirmation message as proof that I had uploaded. As you will have worked out, you can’t save anything you submit on the system.
Because I was in dispute with them I also used to send hard copies of the letters by registered post.
If they told me they didn’t receive things (which they sometimes did) then I had proof that of sending them information twice.
You are not alone. The CMS get away with abuse of administrative power on a number of levels very frequently. Don’t give up - keep swinging and don’t let them get you down.
Something similar happened to me so I used to upload scanned copies of letters and then take a screen shot of the confirmation message as proof that I had uploaded. As you will have worked out, you can’t save anything you submit on the system.
Because I was in dispute with them I also used to send hard copies of the letters by registered post.
If they told me they didn’t receive things (which they sometimes did) then I had proof that of sending them information twice.
I would definitely endorse having proof of postage - the screenshots idea is a nice additional touch. 🙂