I went to the family court in 2013 and was awarded 45/55 care, so I have been class as an NRP paying into the CMS since 2014 (all up to date) [for 1 child]. I pay directly to the Child’s Mother each week / month)
Since December 2013 I have had equal day to day care of the child and equal overnight care, this was arranged informally and not through the Courts.
I have made my payments in accordance with the annual review as this is always the most accurate information the HMRC hold .
Between 2018 and 2019 I had both a Ltd. Company as was employed as PAYE with another company, I did not disclose my start date with the PAYE to the CMS (my experience with the CMS in giving them updateD or reduced salaries has always led to a nightmare, so opt for the annual review).
In the meantime I put in what I think my final salary will be into the online maintenance calculator for the next 12 months and it gives me a figure that my maintenance payments should be example £5000 per year. So I divide this by 12 months and pay the appropriate amount to the Child’s mother each week or month dependent on cash flow.
September 2019 I got my annual review so I requested a mandatory reconsideration based on that I am a special case in accordance with regulation 50 and that I am responsible for day to day when he is with me 50/50 and that the Court Order they have based the payments on is no longer relevant.
I had no response to my mandatory reconsideration request and put additional requests in through the portal and telephone and was ignored until....
...fast forward March 2020 and I receive an arrears bill for £15000. There was a mandatory reconsideration request option with this new letter so I put another one in. This was on the basis that the payments I calculated from the CMS online calculator and paid to the mother’s account have not been deducted (and that the number of nights is wrong).
My mandatory reconsideration request was reject for the reason that ‘the payments that have been made to the RP (child’s mother) are additional payments which are optional payments in accordance with the CM regulations.
Further clarification with a CMS call handler stated that because I had had several direct debits going into the RP account And these did not reference ‘child maintenance’ then they could not be considered. I had titles such as ‘Child’s Clothes’ Child’s School dinners, Childs Football, etc (I want to feel like I’m involved and that is the reason for the references).
I have a Tribunal which is expected to be in around September / October of this year and in the meantime I have to pay approximately £700 each month in payments and arrears.
My question is , does anyone have any experience in having these payments deducted from the arrears or even getting back the overpayments that have been made?
hi,
am a little confused. so you are registered with CMS and making payments calculated by them, but you also use the .gov cms calculator and making extra payments to RP? what CMS mentioned about additional payments sounds about right. if you just use that online calculator and pay your ex, then thats a private arrangement and CMS are not involved.
they say that you should report a change to them within 7 days, such as starting a new job, leaving a job, or claiming benefits etc. at times i thought maybe i should just leave things till the annual review, but something might come back to bite me in the [censored]. I do not have experience with tribunals. hopefully other dads who have been through one can advise you.
I did not notify the CMS of my new salary.
However I paid the resident parent what I thought the payments would be.
The reason I did not notify the CMS of my new salary was that I also had a ltd company (for 4 years) and I was still in the middle of trying to get that resolved. Anyone who has been ltd and paye will Understand...but please put that aside as this is just background.
My question is how do I get the payments I have made to get deducted from my arrears as these are almost £10,000.
For further info, the reason I am in this situation is that the Resident Parent has told the CMS that They should refer to the Court Order issued in 2013 which shows less overnight care (she stands to lose £700 a month so you can see where the motivation is). I am sure this part of it will be resolved at the tribunal.
So if you have a case with the CMS, then you would have a payment schedule with a clear amount that you had to pay them each month. Are you saying that instead of paying all of the amount in one go by bank transfer referencing the payment as ‘Child Maintenance’ (their advice which is clearly spelt on letters) you split this into smaller amounts and referenced it with irrelevant stuff?
Also how have they come
To the arrears? Has your ex told them that you haven’t paid?
Reading between the lines it seems the above is right, and if so I reckon your a bit stuffed.