Where to go next...

jjj1980 · 20 April 2018 at 9:21PM

I really need some help with getting CMS to take swifter enforcement.

My CMS case was set up in 2016 as a replacement for the CSA case that had been active since 2010. It is currently just over £3,200 in arrears. This is made up of one Liability Order for the arrears that were transferred from CSA of £1,300, a Liability Order of £1,100 from when the CMS case started until mid November 2017 and the rest arrears that have built since mid November. The two Liability Orders are with Marstons Bailiffs, the first since August 2017 and the second since the start of the year.

I have raised a complaint with CMS regarding the slow enforcement on the case as nothing happens unless I ring repeatedly. Marstons, as and when they bother trying, will make a weekly payment arrangement with the NRP. Unless they take a payment at the time, the arrangement gets broken straight away then it can be 6-8 weeks before they chase him up again. I also raised with them that I had been told by CMS that as soon as the arrears that were building last year reached £500, they would apply for a Liability Order. Despite me chasing them, they did not apply until there was more than double that amount owed. They have also said they are not going to try to enforce the ongoing support until both Liability Orders have been paid in full. By which point, there will be another huge debt accrued!

I had a response letter early February from the Complaint Resolution Team which contained a lot of errors and was written based on wrong information. On calling them to discuss the letter, they confirmed that they had made assumptions on what would have been agreed by the Bailiffs and had not actually looked to check! I asked for the complaint to be passed to the Complaint Review Team as I was not happy with the response they had given. This was on 7th February. On 27th February after I had made numerous calls I received a callback from a manager in the Complaint Review Team who claimed they had only received the complaint the day before and that due to workload and staff shortages, they would be unable to allocate it for handling within the near future and I would just have to wait.

After a lot more chasing, I received calls in late March to advise they had still not allocated the case out and still could not give any timescales of when this would happen. After speaking with someone at ICE, I was advised to send them the background and they would be willing to take the case on. However, I have received a letter from them now saying CMS have advised the complaint is in their queue so ICE are now no longer willing to take the case on until I have the final response letter from CMS. ICE told me to contact CMS to chase up when I would be getting the final response letter. During the call in late March, I was told that there was no direct number or email address for the Complaint Review Team and all chasing should be made via my case handler within the Enforcement Team. I spoke to my case handler yesterday and she advised that they do not have any way of contacting the Complaint Review Team and that my only option was to write in to a Washington address.

I am now stuck with being unable to take the matter further with ICE as I have not received the letter that is needed from CMS, no direct way of contacting the Complaint Review Team and have sent letters in the past which have been signed for and ignored and arrears are still building on the case.

I've tried calling a number of local family law solicitors for advice but they all say they don't deal with child support matters. I need to find a way to take this forward and get some real enforcement action taken. There has been talk since December of the bailiffs sending the case back and CMS taking it to court for Legal Sanctions, particularly consideration of a custodial sentence but the most recent broken arrangement is the seventh since Christmas!

I appreciate any advice of where to turn to next! Thanks in advance.

jimd-f · 21 April 2018 at 9:39AM

the fact that your case is with the enforcement dept is the best news you have, as that is the place where you are most likely to get action.
however, the process, as you are discovering, can be slow.
you may not like the following but I am trying to give you realistic advice;
once your case gets to the enforcement team they have to follow specific procedures before they can take him to court for non payment which includes, amongst other things, giving the bailiffs the chance to get payment. the bailiffs have a set timescale to handle cases.
from the enforcement team taking on your case the minimum time it will take to get the case to court will be 12 months because of the procedures on a straightforward case.
this can be delayed if the case is moved to complaints/ICE/MP as these teams will take the case out of the enforcement work queue and will only contribute to delays. you would be better asking to speak to a senior enforcement manager -get their name- and then only speak to them/
having more than 1 or 2 Liability Orders in place is not necessarily a reasonable option unless the Paying Parent has property on which to put a Charging Order as it just takes time and takes the attention away from pursuing action on the existing orders.
I assume your ex is self employed and just does not want to pay. these are currently the most difficult cases to pursue as the CMS cannot get a deduction of earnings on his wages.
they can try to get money from his bank account, assuming he has money in his bank, and try various other actions depending on his circumstances and all these actions must be pursued before they can take him to court for non-payment.
I would suggest that the best way for you to proceed is to build a relationship with your case officer in enforcement, or a senior enforcement manager, and ask them what action they are taking to get this case to court for non payment and for them to give you some realistic timescales.
constant calling may sometimes seem an answer, but if you develop a dialogue with your case officer and only call if they fail to update you at an agreed time you will be surprised at how easier the case progresses and your stress levels drop.
you should also note that the reason you are not getting money is because your ex is not paying, or does not want to pay. that is not CMS fault
CMS job is to get payments when an agreement can't be made between the parents, and to do this they must follow the procedures they have, however long that takes.

jjj1980 · 21 April 2018 at 3:07PM

Yes, the NRP is self-employed. It's cash-in-hand work as well as he always said he would make it as difficult as possible to get any child support payments out of him. He is currently being investigated by HMRC for undeclared earnings as he has only ever submitted tax returns/accounts when faced with a fine and they have been given evidence that he is earning a lot more than he has declared. It was not me that obtained and provided the evidence but I have seen it and its pretty damning. He doesn't use his own bank accounts for his takings so not point freezing his accounts, he leases a car and lives with a friend so there are no assets in his name.

My frustration is that this has not been a recent situation, it's been like this since the original CSA case started. I get there are procedures to follow but they need to be drastically shortened and the enforcement made more sever to prevent NRPs being able to avoid paying. Both CMS and the appointed bailiffs are taking far too long in between each attempt to chase him for payment. Any other debt would not be left 6-8 weeks between chasers!

CMS have admitted that they, CSA and the bailiffs are leaving things to sit for too long and allowing him to become complacent in his non-payment. They keep telling me that if they recall the case from the bailiffs, it will not return with the Nulla Bona paperwork which is required when applying for a court case for legal sanctions. I have asked how I raise an issue regarding the multiple times the bailiffs allow him to make and break arrangements to just make another one 4/5 weeks later which gets broken straight away. I've been told I can't as the bailiff appointment is between CMS and the bailiffs but that ICE would make a full investigation and my Enforcement Case Handler confirmed that she knows ICE would say nowhere near enough has been done to enforce payment on this case. Until I get the letter from Complaint Review Team though, I'm still completely stuck with no way forward.

I guess I just cannot understand how a parent (not that my ex deserves that title due to everything he has put both LO and me through) can sleep at night knowing they are refusing to support an innocent child. I really think the whole system needs to go back to the RP receiving the payments upfront and it then be down to CMS to worry about obtaining the repayment from the NRP. Alternatively the enforcement of payment be flipped on it's head so you start with a legally binding order which can quickly move to legal sanctions if the support is not kept absolutely up to date. Child Support should be the one payment where there is no allowance made for late payments. I did not choose to have to be part of this system but due to my ex being very abusive, particularly where the subject of child support was concerned, there was no other choice. He was warned in no uncertain terms by the judge during the divorce that he was not to ever fail to pay child support and that his threats to quit working to avoid paying would go heavily against him. Sorry for the rant but I really do believe that a child's right to receive financial support from BOTH parents totally trumps either parent's wish to avoid paying and that no parent should get away with missing even one payment.

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