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I've been in receipt of a war disablement pension since being medically discharged from the army in 2013. I receive 400 a month from norcross and 200 a month from paymaster general. I've been told numerous times s cannot take into account a war disablement pension and I will be on flat rate which I'm not!
I now live with my partner have a baby and a step daughter. I work for an agency anywere between 0-24 hours per week.
I had a private arrangement with my ex wife of paying school dinners, all school uniform, coats, shoes, trainers etc which I happily paid until she thought she could get more through cms even though some weeks my wages are nil. I have my son's staying once a twice a week but she will not tell cms this.
She has now been awarded 30 a week cms and even weeks were I haven't had any work I still have to pay the full 30. This is putting a huge strain on my relationship now and in debt.
How do cms think it's fair to take money even when I don't have work?
I've been in contact with csa now cms since leaving the army in 2013 and I've been told numerous times there are no arrears so I was suprised that I got a letter saying I owe ex wife 700! I have no idea where this amount has come from and when ringing cms they do not have record of exact dates just say it is historian arrears! [censored] I've also been waiting 3 weeks for a letter showing were these so called arrears have came from. Still not arrived.
Anyone have any advice or help on were I stand with all these problems? How come they believe everything my poisonous ex wife tells them. How can I prove I have my children overnight if she's saying different. The cms man said I have to go to court to prove it ( cannot afford it ).
I've also been told in passing from a family friend about variations. I took a 10k loan out when with my ex to pay for our wedding in my name. I'm still paying 200 a month back without no help from her as I was foolish enough to get it in my name!
Any help please
Good morning,
I'm guessing that by Norcross you mean DWP, so this is your disability pension (£400/month), and that the other £200/month is your military pension. From memory (someone with more technical knowledge than I will correct me if I am wrong) your disability payment from DWP is not taken into account by CSA/CMS for CM purposes, but your military pension is treated as income.
You will have received an assessment letter from DWP (probably on CSA notepaper) at the start of the case your ex-wife raised, it will say on that what it has assumed your income to be (the sum of your military pension and your earnings from employment). CMS would have probably derived your income from HMRC, so it might be your average earnings rather than what you were paid in any particular week. CMS will have sent you an annual statement to show payments and any arrears. If not it should be a simple matter to ask for a copy (you have had since 2013, so this is not a recent thing). I have found it best to correspond with CSA in writing and keep copies of any letters (and replies).
You must remember that CSA is a debt collection agency, and nothing to do with the welfare of individual children. The reason it is there is to keep the welfare budget down, not philanthropy. It is no different from a loan or hire purchase company (except it belongs to the government of the day) when it comes to extracting money, and it is your responsibility to ensure it is not taking too much (just like it would be with a loan or HP company).
On the whole CSA/CMS is biased towards mothers, I think this is because it is often easiest to extract money from men (more often in full time employment, less often resident parents) than it is from women, and so keep the welfare budget down. If you don't have an agreement about care for children then it will probably assume that children are with the mother all the time (and the civil servants that work for DWP don't have any ability to investigate where children are staying unless there is something in writing). It would be worth writing down an agreement with your ex-wife about responsibilities for the children, which would then reduce your CM liability a bit. Whilst I sympathise with your financial plight, I can't help thinking this should be more about what is best for your children than keeping your costs down, but that is your issue.
Best wishes,
O
Hi and welcome
I was under the impression that war disablement pensions weren't included in the CMS calculation - othen knws far more about this than I do from his answer above, but chase them frequently (I'd say twice a week) on getting that letter out to you.
Also, go and see you MP as soon as possible and ask them to raise a complaint, and also take a look at this https://www.gov.uk/child-maintenance/complaints-and-appeals
You are correct about the variation - it's where a loan (not credit card) was take out for the benefit of the family, so I would speak to the CMS about this also.
Finally, it's probably also worth looking at www.stepchange.org - they are a debt management charity and they might help you in your present circumstance - certainly can't harm giving them a call.
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