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Backstory:
I have been paying child maintenance for my daughter her entire life, along with covering additional expenses like school holidays, clothes, and more. We had regular contact and shared a good relationship. However, when my daughter was 14, following a minor disagreement between her and my wife, her mother opened a case with the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) totally out of the blue. It was a catastrophic move by her mother, and deeply strained my relationship with my daughter. Since then, my efforts to reconcile have been unsuccessful, and my daughter has been turned against my wife and me. As a result, she hasn’t seen her half-brother, who is now 9, for almost four years.
My daughter recently turned 18, and is currently doing A-Levels, which she us due to finish this May/June. Last I heard she may or may not continue with education after that.
The question:
As I have no contact with my daughter:
- How will I know if she leaves education?
- How can I trust that her mother will inform Child Benefit that she has left? (Who will consequently inform the CMS, I'm told).
- If her mother continues to claim CMS payments several months after my daughter has left education, can I report her or raise a benefit fraud claim of any kind?
Soapbox:
I've had all sorts of issues with the CMS in my 3.5 years having to deal with them. Fantom arrears added; poor communication (I've written to their complaints several times with no reply, even with recorded delivery); been hung up on by operators (while being completely calm I might add); been on hold for over an with the phone going dead.
I have a really great wife who has helped me deal with CMS admin, and even she can see that this entire 'service' is so badly rigged against fathers, she has been in more despair than me!
Nothing pains me more than having played by the book for all of my daughters life, and then to be treated like this. It's turned my relationship with her into a 'prison sentence'.
hi,
unfortunately the CB can be open to fraud if main carer is dishonest. see:
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