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Firstly hello to everyone - I am new to this site and really could do with some help and advise ......
My daughter has lived with me the past 7 yrs and when sure turned 18 she decided to re build her relationship with her mother who had left her at the age of 11. When she moved to her mothers I cancelled the CSA payments and thought that was that! How wrong I was .......
Her mother has decided to make a claim against me to the Child Maint Svc (CMS) and is trying to fleece me even though she never paid anything for 2+ years.
I received a letter from my ex wife last week which was vile and contained many of the usual threats she likes to make. However the main point was that she knew how much I earn't last year.
I have spoken with CMS today and they confirmed that they have indeed provided my annual earnings to my ex wife which they got from the HMRC. The CMS stated today that they had the right to disclose my private and confidential earnings under the new legislation of the CMS. I am horrified by this as the CSA couldn't disclose my ex wife's earnings at all and I knew she "fudged" her annual earnings and she didn't declare her 2nd job and what was annoying was that the CSA didn't care about any of this.
On speaking with HMRC this evening they were rather surprised that the CMS had disclosed my earnings and they agreed that my details are confidential.
Has anyone else had this issue or even aware of the CMS disclosing annual earnings. I am investigating the matter of data protection as I have never been asked or advised that my earnings would be disclosed by the CMS and I do not see how they can do this without someone's consent?
Any help and advise would be extremely useful .....
Hi and welcome
I'm on the other side, so to speak, in that I have custody of my children and my ex pays me maintenance (finally!!) so I have in front of me a letter from the CSA (I'm not yet moved over to CMS) and it says:
PART A
Here are the income figures we used to work out how much child maintenance should be paid
Net Weekly income
So the CSA do indeed quote the figure. However, even if they didn't, they give the way the final maintenance figure is calculated, so it would be easy to work backwards to arrive at the income figure.
Hi there - thanks for your reply. My experience with the CSA and CMS has been awful. Like yourself my daughter lived with me for 7+yrs and I went through the CSA in 2008 to make a claim. The CSA did not make contact with the mother until June 2010 and while I chased the response was they couldn't make contact. Finally when the CSA made contact they advised they could not back date the previous two years much to my amazement. The figures the CSA supplied for the maintenance payments going forward I knew were wrong but the CSA said they could not share the details with me and that was that. I have been fighting ever since to get the 2yrs paid with the CSA and they will not help at all. The mother also avoided payment for the next two years and finally the CSA got the situation resolved but would not share any details.
My issue is that the mother after 2+yrs of no payment and avoidance has instantly gone to the CMS and made a claim after one month. I had a number of financial issues and low income for 5yrs and then landed a new job and I had a one off bonus which was last yr. I am being fleeced by the CMS for this bearing in mind I have nearly £20K in outstanding maintenance due I am fighting an uphill battle and no one at the CSA or CMS will help recover this unpaid debt. I have advised the CMS that I have always paid in the past and do not have issues in doing so but I have to the outstanding debt cleared firstly. The CMS have advised that they have never heard of this situation and are looking in the issue but I am not confident in the outcome.
My issue is that with the disclosure of personal earnings under the data protection act you need to be made aware and give permission to disclose. HMRC were very surprised that these details are disclosed and have advised I speak with the ICO on this matter.
I have always had to fight to be supported and heard by the CSA/CMS - The CSA/CMS can only help mothers out its seems from experience and don't know how to support fathers. An example was when I rang the CSA they always assumed I was paying parent and asked how much I paid per month which was annoying.
Parents should always support their children whatever and I have no issues is paying. However when the system is clearly biased towards the mother then what chance do fathers have when they do what any responsible parent should do in loving and supporting their child who was abandoned by the mother for a new husband...
Generally, my experience with the CSA has been very positive, but I do seem to be in the minority with what I've heard on here. They now ask how I pay or receive the money, so they've learned about not assuming the father is always the paying parent - I did used to get that - and they've been really on the ball with my ex and any changes (in fact, they rang me a couple of days ago, and now I have it in writing) that they have increased the maintenance when they'd only just increased it 2 months ago, so either my ex is volunteering any increase in income (which I very much doubt) or they are keeping up to date with the HMRC. When I appealed a couple of years ago because my ex was due to have some early pensions mature, they did take a good look before deciding that they couldn't take them into account, but they certainly kept me informed. There have also been occasions where I have got the impression that they would like to tell me more, but are not allowed to do so - I suspect that they have no sympathy with my ex because she tried everything possible originally to avoid paying maintenance.
I think, as far as confidentiality is concerned, they probably won't tell you where the income is derived, just what the figure is (which as I said, it easy enough to work backwards to anyway), so if the paying parent has multiple incomes, I think they'd all be combined into a single weekly amount on the notification.
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