Reporting someone to CMS

amandaab

Hi, 

I was wondering if anyone knows what I should do in this circumstance please?

I have a child who is 13. I always knew who the father was, but I didn’t have this confirmed until 3 years ago. I applied for maintenance for my child soon after I had the proof that he was indeed the father. 

The rate payable was only £7 per week because the father was unemployed. This hasn’t changed in the three years I’ve been claiming it. 

I have always known that he works (he seems to be a self employed tradesman). I reported him to the DWP in 2019 but nothing came of the investigation. I assume he managed to lie his way out of it because I heard nothing back and the rate of £7 per week didn’t change. 

I now have video evidence of him working. He can be clearly seen and identified in the video. Would this count as proof enough to start an investigation on him? If it does, who would I send the video to? 

Thank you in advance for any help you can give me.

tacpot12

You need to call the CMS and ask for a variation of your maintenance payment because the child's father is working and has always worked. 

The video is not great evidence on its own, as he could be working that day, but not on many others. really you need to collect evidence from every customer of his over a full tax year.

I would also report him to HMRC. If he is declaring all his self-employed income to HMRC, the CMS will be aware of his true level of income, and will redo their calculation either in response to your request for a variation, or at the annual review of your case. You  can report tax evasion here: Report tax evasion - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

HMRC will be interested if all his customers are paying him in cash.

amandaab

Thank you for the reply tacpot. 

I didn’t even think of HMRC. I will report him to them too. I really don’t know how he’s managing to work and claim benefits at the same time. I thought if he was caught be the DWP then I could call CMS and they’d see he has been working. Every time I tried previously they just kept telling me he was paying the correct amount for his circumstances. It’s infuriating because I know that’s not the case lol. 

poppy12345

amandaab said:

I reported him to the DWP in 2019 but nothing came of the investigation. I assume he managed to lie his way out of it because I heard nothing back and the rate of £7 per week didn’t change. 

You wouldn't have heard anything back and i'm unsure why you think you should have. Once you report someone, that's the end of it at least for the person that's reported them.

amandaab said:

 I really don’t know how he’s managing to work and claim benefits at the same time.

This ^^^ it's perfectly normal for a person to be working and claiming benefits at the same time... people on low income do exactly this, the benefits are called either Universaal Credit, Tax credits and/or housing benefit.

amandaab

poppy12345 said:

amandaab said:

I reported him to the DWP in 2019 but nothing came of the investigation. I assume he managed to lie his way out of it because I heard nothing back and the rate of £7 per week didn’t change. 

This ^^^ it's perfectly normal for a person to be working and claiming benefits at the same time... people on low income do exactly this, the benefits are called either Universaal Credit, Tax credits and/or housing benefit.

Yes, I understand that is possible, but to be paying a rate of £7 per week he would have to be on an extremely low income. Even if he was earning NMW he would still need to pay more. The £7 is I think what they call a flat rate for those on benefits or have an income of less than £100 per week. I know he works more than just two days, I have personally observed him on multiple occasions working on peoples houses for weeks at a time. 

I just assumed as I explained the situation that they’d let me know the outcome. Excuse me, I don’t know how these things work.