CMS complaint

sariehall2328

Hi all, I applied for Child maintenance and they have said they are closing my account due to me no longer being the parent with the main day-to-day care of this child.
this is incorrect and i believe they came to this conclusion because my ex fed them lies. When I called them they said HMRC told them I’m not claiming child benefits which is incorrect, I told them this and that I’ve got proof I am, they said I’m not and that the case is closed, I got irritated and did raise my voice as I wanted them to allow me a chance to prove I’m the main carer, my son hasn’t seen his father in 5 years, he’s back in full time education and I applied for child maintenance for some financial support.  In the end the cms said they would review my case, I have now managed to upload the documents that prove I and getting child benefits, I’ve also included a letter of complaint, my question is , would they really just take the word of my ex? Or have they just not checked with child benefits? I did call child benefit and told them what happened and that cms said they had told them that I’m not receiving child benefit to which the lady on the phone said she could see on her system that I am therefore they would not have told the cms that I wasn’t receiving this benefit. Long message I know but I’m so cross and frustrated as I’ve missed 2 months now and they are clearly in no hurry to get back to me even tho I’ve proven I’m the main parent, thanks 

MattMattMattUK

sariehall2328 said:

Hi all, I applied for Child maintenance and they have said they are closing my account due to me no longer being the parent with the main day-to-day care of this child.
this is incorrect and i believe they came to this conclusion because my ex fed them lies. When I called them they said HMRC told them I’m not claiming child benefits which is incorrect, I told them this and that I’ve got proof I am, they said I’m not and that the case is closed, I got irritated and did raise my voice as I wanted them to allow me a chance to prove I’m the main carer, my son hasn’t seen his father in 5 years, he’s back in full time education and I applied for child maintenance for some financial support.  In the end the cms said they would review my case, I have now managed to upload the documents that prove I and getting child benefits, I’ve also included a letter of complaint, my question is , would they really just take the word of my ex? Or have they just not checked with child benefits? I did call child benefit and told them what happened and that cms said they had told them that I’m not receiving child benefit to which the lady on the phone said she could see on her system that I am therefore they would not have told the cms that I wasn’t receiving this benefit. Long message I know but I’m so cross and frustrated as I’ve missed 2 months now and they are clearly in no hurry to get back to me even tho I’ve proven I’m the main parent, thanks 

How long was your child out of full time education and how old are they?

sariehall2328

My son left at 16 he’s now 18 and studying A levels at college full time so I am entitled to child maintenance as he’s under 20 which is why I am able to claim child benefit 

MattMattMattUK

sariehall2328 said:

My son left at 16 he’s now 18 and studying A levels at college full time so I am entitled to child maintenance as he’s under 20 which is why I am able to claim child benefit 

So it stopped when they left full time education at 16, and when they returned to full time education you started a new claim, or something different? When did they restart full time education, September?

sariehall2328

All child maintenance and child benefit stopped when he left school then in September this year he decided to go back to full time at college for a levels so I applied for child benefit which I now have, then I applied for child maintenance, they have said they are closing my case as I’m not the main day to day parent for my son yet he lives with me and I support him which is why I am able to get child benefit, he hasn’t seen or spoken to his father since he left us 5 years ago, my question is how on earth can they come to this conclusion and surely they wouldn’t just take his word for this, my ex is a compulsive liar and hasn’t paid a penny willingly towards any of my 3 children and he’s not has anything to with any of them either 

MattMattMattUK

sariehall2328 said:

All child maintenance and child benefit stopped when he left school then in September this year he decided to go back to full time at college for a levels so I applied for child benefit which I now have, then I applied for child maintenance, they have said they are closing my case as I’m not the main day to day parent for my son yet he lives with me and I support him which is why I am able to get child benefit, 

he hasn’t seen or spoken to his father since he left us 5 years ago

Being in receipt of Child Benefit does not automatically mean you are the resident parent, the primary carer or automatically entitle you to claim child maintenance, so there will be additional information required. CMS would write to both parents, if the father said that either the child was not in full time education, or that the child lived with him then that would cancel the claim. I suspect your "raise my voice" incident might have meant they were not particularly amicable to be helpful at that stage. 

sariehall2328 said:

, my question is how on earth can they come to this conclusion and surely they wouldn’t just take his word for this,

You submitted a claim, the father said that the child was not in full time education and/or lived with him not you. At that point you would have been sent a form to confirm the details of your child's education and/or residence. If you did not complete that form then the claim would have been cancelled, if you completed the form but the college did not confirm that your son was enrolled there after then your claim would have been cancelled. They do not "just take his word for this", but similarly they do not just take your word for it either, it all needs to be evidenced. 

sariehall2328 said:

my ex is a compulsive liar and hasn’t paid a penny willingly towards any of my 3 children and he’s not has anything to with any of them either 

That may be the case, but it is not relevant to the situation, the CMS have a very rigid process they are required to follow to deal with both those who try to avoid paying and those who make false claims, everything has to be evidenced. 

sariehall2328 said:

I’ve missed 2 months now and they are clearly in no hurry to get back to me

The payments will be backdated to the start of the claim.

sariehall2328 said:

even tho I’ve proven I’m the main parent

The question is have you, or have you only proven that you are in receipt of Child Benefit? Have you also evidenced that your son has returned to full time education?

sariehall2328

Oh gosh no one has asked for any evidence that my son is at college, so they should have sent me a document and haven’t? I imagine my ex has told them he doesn’t believe my son is back in education and yet he’s not had any contact for 5 years so they have just taken his word for it because I’ve just received information that they have rejected my complaint so what now? I’m stuffed, he has no proof yet I do have proof and can supply them with evidence my son is at college yet they haven’t asked me for that 

sariehall2328

I proved my son was in education to child benefits but no one at the cms asked me to, 

sariehall2328

Also that’s not what the letter said , they said they are closing my account t as I’m not the main day to day parent of my child, if my Ex has said that then he’s lying but how do I prove it? I’ve sent them evidence I’m receiving child benefit so what more can I do? I’d have to get a private detective in! It makes no sense, so the cms have just taken my ex husband word for it? Really? This is unacceptable and I will now have to go to my local mp , I’ve not been asked to provide any evidence to the cms they have not given me an opportunity to defend their decision they just cut me off, so what if I raised my voice? I didn’t swear and wasn’t rude , the guy on the phone wasn’t listening and wouldn’t tell me what to do next he just kept repeating that the decision was made and that’s it 

MattMattMattUK

sariehall2328 said:

Oh gosh no one has asked for any evidence that my son is at college, so they should have sent me a document and haven’t? I imagine my ex has told them he doesn’t believe my son is back in education and yet he’s not had any contact for 5 years so they have just taken his word for it because I’ve just received information that they have rejected my complaint so what now? I’m stuffed, he has no proof yet I do have proof and can supply them with evidence my son is at college yet they haven’t asked me for that 

sariehall2328 said:

I proved my son was in education to child benefits but no one at the cms asked me to, 

I am not sure if this is a paper form or electronic now, it has been a few years since I helped a friend with this but she had to confirm her child was in education and then the college was required to confirm as well.

sariehall2328 said:

Also that’s not what the letter said , they said they are closing my account t as I’m not the main day to day parent of my child, if my Ex has said that then he’s lying but how do I prove it?

As your son is 18 they will ask that he confirms he still lives with you and if so how many nights a week. I would probably contact them again, be friendly and ask why they believe the child is not resident with you, they would then tell you how to evidence this. Is your son on your Council Tax?

sariehall2328 said:

I’ve sent them evidence I’m receiving child benefit so what more can I do?

All that means is your are claiming Child Benefit, it does not mean anything beyond that.

sariehall2328 said:

I’d have to get a private detective in! 

No, you would just need to evidence it. For an adult child (18 or older) then they normally ask the child to confirm, but they can also look at where they are on the Council Tax, where they are registered to vote and where their bank accounts are registered, as well as the address they gave when they enrolled for their qualifying course. 

sariehall2328 said:

It so the cms have just taken my ex husband word for it? Really? This is unacceptable and I will now have to go to my local mp 

I think you need to take a bit of a step back as you seem to be trying to escalate this before you even know what has actually happened. Getting angry about things, shouting at people on the phone, getting MPs involved without full possession of the fact is not going to help you get anywhere positive. 

You started a CMS claim, your son's father said that the child was not resident with you and/or in full time education, they may have evidenced that in some way (e.g. they could have put your son's name on his Council Tax, then sent a copy of that to the CMS) which would be fraud, but for them to investigate, or they sent you a form somehow asking you to evidence your son being resident with you and/or in full time education. My understanding is that these requests and forms are mostly sent to the online CMS portal you would have set up when you created your claim initially, but some forms are still sent out in the post. You need to establish how the relevant information was requested and then if it was via post it appears it has gone missing, if electronically then if you replied or not.

sariehall2328 said:

I’ve not been asked to provide any evidence to the cms they have not given me an opportunity to defend their decision

I think you need to double check everything first, the online portal, any post/junk mail etc. The CMS has very rigorous (if somewhat slow) processes, they have mandatory reconsideration processes as well.

sariehall2328 said:

they just cut me off, so what if I raised my voice? I didn’t swear and wasn’t rude

Most government departments and workers have quite strict rules about the behaviour levels they are required to put up with, they are well protected and I would imagine if they cut you off you were probably louder and potentially ruder and swearier than you remember being. Looking at your posts on this thread you seem somewhat keen to start an argument, to escalate everything rather than solving the issue. I understand that you may find this emotional, but ultimately if you want to get anywhere with these kinds of issues you need to take a cold, hard, methodical approach. 

sariehall2328 said:

the guy on the phone wasn’t listening and wouldn’t tell me what to do next he just kept repeating that the decision was made and that’s it 

There is not enough information to know what actually happened, but check everything in the online portal, get any physical letters together and re-read them, make sure you have not missed anything. Get a full timeline, then start the below.

Mandatory Reconsideration:
You can request the CMS decision is reconsidered, that means a different handler will review the claim and then submit it to a manager for judgement. 
https://www.gov.uk/mandatory-reconsideration

DWP Complaints
If that fails you can also follow the DWP complaints procedure. Whilst in theory you could do both at the same time you would be best to wait for Mandatory Reconsideration to be completed first as I suspect that is most likely to resolve the issue. 
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/about/complaints-procedure

LightFlare

When you say full time education does that mean he attends college 5 days a week and for full days ?