I have minimal contact with my daughter and I have always paid child maintenance, However my daughter left school in June and i have been told that she is at college and doing 2 days a week work experience, I have recently switched to direct pay, and now on the 1st of every month her mother sends me a message demanding the payment, This raised my suspicions about the status of my daughters full time education status.
I asked CSM to investigate and they informed me to do it via Child benefit, the child benefit basically just asked her mother if she was at college, obviously her mum said yes....case closed.
My question is this, what happens if i stop paying ?....i was told by her mother in her first message that if i refused to pay the child benefit service would put me on an attachment of earnings ?
But according to the CMS, they would firstly ask me to pay it and then take enforcement action via magistrates’ or sheriff courts for a ‘liability order ?
I really do feel that my daughter has left school and her mother is now harassing me for payments and also lying to me and child benefit / CSM.
hi,
i would suggest to keep on paying maintenance for now. if you do stop then CMS will likely take enforcement action, they can be very harsh, they have authority to raid bank accounts and and can get your employer to deduct maintenance direct from your wages, and this would incur additional 20% fee! if you believe child benefit should have stopped, try raising a fraud claim with child benefit team. also see this short video: