Large Child Maintenance Arrear

JW1971

My daughters biological father has managed to rack up over £12.5k worth of child maintenance arrears.  She has now left education so he no longer has to pay maintenance.
I have received nothing for the past year although the child maintenance service have been involved. 
After 7 months of receiving no payments and his erratic payment history I agreed to take a one off payment of £8k to close the account. 
Obviously this never materialised but managed to get him another few months grace. 
They were just going to give him an attachment of earnings when he agreed to set up a Direct Debit for £150 in May - the payment never materialised either - then they have allowed him to set up another Direct debit for this month for £50 a month - this will take him 21years to pay off his arrears - which will never happen as we are both due to retire in about 15 years.
I am so angry because they always let him get away with it - so he will now pay for about 4 months and then nothing, I'm angry that the parents that pay every month without fail are asked to give more and more whilst the one's who don't bother they seem to be very lenient with.
I'm wondering if there's something I can do legally through the courts myself?

tightauldgit

I think you should make a formal complaint to CMS that they are not enforcing the arrears sufficiently and that the payments are insufficient. It's worth a try although it may be harder now that shes no longer reliant on maintenance to make a case - as you can't say that the non payment is affecting her. 

The other thing I would do is contact your MP and see if they can help. 

As far as legal action goes I believe (and i could be wrong so do seek further advice) that it's up to CMS to enforce their orders and any arrears . 

I believe that part of the issue is simply that CMS don't have the resources necessary to investigate cases properly so they are largely reliant on the information given to them by both parents. If he says he can't afford more than £50 a month and makes a case for that then it might well be that they go along with it. There should be avenues for you to challenge these decisions though so make sure you purse them as much as you can and make your own case why he needs to pay more - have you for example had to borrow money to make up the shortfall?