Hi all, I have 2 children. One has been living with me for a few months, the other is with his mother. When this happened she called the CMS to close the case as we agreed we would have one child each and therefore not make claims against eachother.
I have now recieved letters saying she is making a claim for one child, and she has told me I can make a counter claim if I wish. The problem with this is I earn more than she does, although she is married and her husband earns a decent wage too.
I also have much higher bills. Her rent is around £450 a month due to living in social housing. Whereas I am not able to get this and have to rent somewhere for £1000 just to be able to support my child and give them a room to stay in. The rent I pay is over half of my take home pay. I also have expensive child care costs for my child after school, whereas she is able to collect from school.
If I have to make the CMS payments it means I would not be able to afford to live where I am currently. In the area I live there is no where more affordable either. The only alternative will be living in a small studio flat with my 11 year old child.
What can I do?
hi,
I am sorry to hear that. can you get in touch with your ex and see if theres any way to come to agreement, and avoid the CMS route?
if she does not agree, then unfortunately you have to work with CMS and pay maintenance. you say you pay a lot in childcare costs. tell CMS and they will take that into account. they have something classed as special expenses, so that can possibly fall under that. also if your spending lot on fuel and driving long distance to pick up or drop kids, then they can give you reductions.
do you see the other child that stays with mum? if so how many nights? tell CMS.
do you pay into a pension? if so, tell CMS about that too.
I will try to call the CMS tomorrow. I have tried to speak to my ex and explain it will cause problems for housing our child and she does not care. She is so selfish and only cares about herself.
She originally told CMS to close the case, and as it was being closed she called them again to cancel this.
I do have to pay for childcare in the form of before and after school club. I will also have to pay for things over school holidays. I really do not know how I will be able to afford all of this.
We actually have the children combined for an equal amount.
What annoys me the most is that her husband earns money so she does not have to work many hours. She can live off his wage.
Whereas I have to work to earn, and this means I have to pay her even more money. If they took into account household income or expenses then the CMS would see how much better off she is than me, and that we have the children for equal amounts.
How is she in social housing if her husband earns a significant amount?
She was given the housing before he moved in with her. He doesn't earn a huge amount, about the same as I do
Received a call today from CMS. On the case I have overpaid by a large amount. Was told the case IS CLOSING and to ignore all payment schedule letters.
However, I said about ex trying to make a new claim. They said this may end up being a new claim and not on the old account where I have overpaid. Basically meaning they cannot force her to pay back what I have overpaid but can force me to make payments... this system sucks!
They did say they will see if they can somehow merge the two accounts to include the overpayments. And also said there have been cases like mine where care is equal so they have said no one has to pay anything. The case worker I spoke to has had to pass it higher up to confirm this as the decision is not one they can make. I was also told I should seek legal advice in this situation.
I did some looking around online and came across someone who was going to family court over something similiar in the hopes the court would rule it equal and stop CMS payments. There was no follow up so I do not know how it went. Has anyone heard of this?
hi,
the easiest way with dealing with CMS is showing them court orders as evidence. soon as i got my order, i sent it to them as evidence. they gave me a small reduction based on number of nights the kids spend with me.
i was looking this up and the courts have power to make a maintenance order. perhaps this is something you can look into. a lot of solicitors provide free 30 minutes of advice. i also heard other cases where a parent had evidence of letters or message exchanges between the ex, stating who the kids live with etc. they showed to cms and convinced them to declare 50/50 care so no maintenance to be paid.
Does the housing association or council know he's moved in? That can be enough for her to lose the social housing. The courts can make a maintenance order, but after 12 months, CMS can override that, with no consideration of what has been paid in the meantime, to the best of my knowledge (certainly was the case with the CSA). With regards to overpayments, if the CMS can't claim it back (which I find unusual, since my ex made a single month overpayment to me when my daughter left education, and CMS said they would take me to court if I didn't pay it back), if she does open a new claim against you, then I would suggest you looking into a claim in the small claims court against her for the overpayment, to be paid back to you at exactly the same rate you would have to pay maintenance to her - I can see a small claims court might see that as an acceptable solution.
They know that he lives with her yes. When I say a good wage, I mean more than minimum wage. Infact, neither one of us earns amazing money.
CMS are very confusing. I know my ex has contacted them to claim CMS for one child, I contact CMS and they tell me the case is closed and not to worry OR make payments. On one schedule I received it just had payments for one child with incorrect shared care band, I tried to change this and they told me not to bother as the case is closed.
I am really worried that I will do what they have told me to do (ignore the letters), and then in a few months time I will receive letters saying I owe a lot of money and they will take me to court etc. What can I do?
I still do not think I should have to pay CMS as we have one of our children each. I have explained to my ex that this means I will not be able to afford to rent a bigger place to provide our child a bedroom but my ex has made it clear they do not care and just want the money. I know CMS do not take into account financial situations, but do you think it may be worth going to court and seeing if they will take this into account?
At the very least, I would get them to confirm in writing that the case is closed - at least, if you have that, you have a much stronger case inn future if they come back to you. I would also do a SAR (subject access request) with them (may cost you £10) - you'll get in theory, everything they have relating to the case, though some parts may be redacted, but again, will give you a better idea of what's gone on.