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Hi All, I'm new to this and hope to learn a thing or two from others.
A friend is now divorced and a single mum after fleeing domestic abuse which was transferring to the children, and it's been a difficult divorce to say the least. The father has been determined by CMS to have to pay £8/week for two children as he's been able to manipulate the CMS and is pleading poverty. £8/week doesn't even pay for half the children's school dinner money each week much less anything else pay toward things like bus fare, uniforms, food, home, clothes, shoes, etc. The thing is, he has his own company as the sole director and shareholder, and contracts to public authorities. He earns over £50k/year, but only declares that he pays himself a salary of less than £12k. He doesn't even declare that he pays himself dividends. During the divorce he dissolved his old company with lots of cash in it, and hid his cash in bank accounts elsewhere, and then started another company, and he still operates charging at £30/hour and about £5k/month today. He lives in the former marital home without mortgage rent free and doesn't pay any bills. Bizarrely, he still comes out at £8/hour because he has been dishonest on his forms, and nobody seems to care about this nor have they run with financial information provided in court which proves he earns at least £50k, and pays himself more than £12k/year. I'm amazed because he's just allowed to get away with lieing to the CMS as they haven't investigated anything. It's disgraceful and I'm cross, not because of the money, but because a dad doesn't take responsibility and pay towards his kids and the CMS doesn't appear interested in reviewing the facts, only what the paying parent has fraudulantly submitted.
Hi
I can understand your frustration, so it's a matter of whether you are able to prove anything.
As I see it, you have two options. Firstly, if you are using CMS or CSA, then you could apply for a variation on the basis of diversion of income - this link might help
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/relationships/children-and-young-people/child-maintenance/child-maintenance-2012-scheme/child-maintenance-reviews-and-appeals/the-2012-child-maintenance-scheme-grounds-for-a-variation/
If it's with the CSA, there was an additional grounds on lifestyle inconsistent with income, though apparently that's pretty hard to prove (and win).
The second option, if the figure is being based on his income, is to possibly report him to the HMRC if he is not declaring all of his income.
Hi and thank you for your reply and advice. I'm a little stuck on what we can suggest for my friend, as it's a unique situation but nothing other than the father's purposeful manipulation and withholding of information leading to £8/week. My friend is formerly a victim of domestic abuse by the father, is now a single mum wasting money paying rent on a house because all capital's stuck in the former marital home which he's dithering on its sale and manipulating too, has bills, etc. She's trying to move on and works part time now and earns very little whilst supporting kids with no help from the father, but instead receives help from friends and family. The CMS account managers involved have said they have to go on the father's gross income based on what is declared by him, including his own costs for travel/public transport/petrol. Although it is being appealed, they still go by what he says he earns irrespective of the my friend's financial situation, and that he's blatantly lied to them.
HMRC are aware of his underhand business practices, but have had a very light touch indicating there's little they can do as he's dissolved all his old companies and seems to have lost all his records and accounts. Their advice was 'be patient, if he did it before he'll do it again and he is now flagged.' That's great, but doesn't help the situation now.
We discovered in family court divorce proceedings (multiple days over 2 years) that even though it was clear and proven he's consistently lied under oath and on court submitted documentation, even the judge had little interest in that, but made decisions based on what financial information he submitted. Apparently nobody seems to see through his manipulation and check the differences between what he provides people, using the systems to only confuse things. HMRC gets one thing, CMS gets another, and the court gets another. None of the government agencies seem to communicate with each other and he just gets away with it.
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