Child maintenance help please.

amybaker

My husband is currently working 37.5 hours a week, he is being ordered by child maintenance to pay £406 a month for his daughter who's 16, we have her every other weekend, he owes arrears , they rang to say theyve contacted his ex partner who won't take lower payment , they take the money directly from his wages, leaving us in a bit of a squabble, how can he appeal against it, he is a good father but paying 40 percent of his wages is affecting us as a family, ??? Anyone help plz as child maintenance service were very unfriendly and not able to help at all... someone must know!!? Thanks in advance

Sambella

If there are children in your family ask for a mandatory reconsideration based on financial hardship. Might also be worth checking if the amount of arrears are correct. They do sometimes get it wrong.

Ask if you can pay a reduced amount for longer to avoid hardship/poverty for any children in your household.

Might also be worth contacting your local MP about this and to see if they can help.

sheramber

you can check how payments are worked out here
https://www.gov.uk/how-child-maintenance-is-worked-out

Kim_13

It sounds as though he is on Collect and Pay, which is adding 20% to his payment in collection fees. It's worth a try to see if he can pay direct to save this, though with arrears they may not agree.

[Deleted User]

Is there an additional fee for some payments? If he can agree to pay direct (obviously he shouldn't default otherwise there's no chance the ex will agree to trust him) then it would surely be better to pay direct?

jjj1980

As he already owes arrears they will not allow direct payments unless the receiving parent agrees, which the receiving parent is under no obligation to do.

CMS do have the authority to take higher amounts by DEO when cases are in arrears. It may be worth asking them to double check their assessment is based on the correct income figures and if it is, speak with Stepchange or Citizens Advice to look at your bills and budget.