Child Maintenance Service Reviews 

If a person does pay tax correctly, then HMRC would investigate.

When a paying parent wants to cheat paying for their child, there’s no real consequence or investigation for this.

I strongly believe this needs a review and paying parents should have a minimum payment they HAVE to make, as every child has the right to live with clothing/food/hot water etc. This is both parents responsibility and this payment should be liable until paid in full. So, it should be charged to the paying parents estate and taken upon death if necessary.

There needs to be stronger laws and no getting out if paying for child maintenance!!!!! If you can’t afford it now, then you pay when you can afford to …simple!

I've never known a company to be so corrupt in my life.
I've always worked. I've always paid. I understand some people try not to pay and therefore they're so strict as a result.
people like myself who off work now due to rupture quad, I have provided all evidence of my hospital letters, sick notes and payslips as requested on the start of March.
I was told it'll be backdated to then until the phone call today saying it be to May!
I've been honest from the word go and now they try and say owe them £800 of arrears.
The calculations are just ridiculous.
they say the lessons to all their phone calls which they clearly haven't because I'll talk back data to March.
I've still paid some money when I've been off as done so by the child matience calculator.
I can see why some dads pay £20,000 extra than what they should have done as they can't do basic maths.
The system is corrupt and I now may take legal action against them.

Corrupt and immoral service that is pushing more and more parents(mostly fathers)to despair and suicide due to nothing more than control and greed and it cares nothing about our children or us.

IT NEEDS ABOLISHING!

Criminal money grabbing system built to do what it can to profit my ex lied to cms saying I havent paid for months even though I had but because I put the reference as my sons name and not CMS therfore the payments dont exist so I got moved to collect and pay and had to pay double and fees for ages resulting in and extra 3000£ payout even though I paid the exact amount they asked for on the right date period i also had texts evidencing she basically lied but they have been dismissing me over and over again this company will ruin you does not help anyone

Absolute shocking service wait nearly an hour to get onto phone, they are just very rude in responses and don’t actually mean to help atall, very blunt with any responses to questions asked, also all need training as when do speak ti someone everyone gives you different answers to questions

this child maintenance service has set extremely low ethical standards, we are going to dicuss relevant cases with examples. This should be an wide angle eye opener for all british citizens. Their phone service is occupied by professional arrogant stupids who r uncaring, discourteous, uneducated and unprofessional. This is an assessment of over 95% callers. This is the primary reason people do not contact them. In one scenario, a child is over 18 and called the service informing that he was adult and no more eligible and wishes for maintenance. We want to share here, this is legally binding on this service to accept and not to make judgemental , rude, premature, illegal reactions in such cases.

In another incident, women who was an applicant got re-married and was very well financially maintained, in addition she being a professional was making extremely handsome earnings, in addition children had grown up, some were adults and others were young adults but less than 18 who needed much less maintenance. But this (dis)service continued to exact extremely unjust amounts from their father incld their own hefty %ages, despite the fact they were well aware of chnage in circumstances of the applicant (mother). This could risk legal action.

In yet another incident, we found father who was the paying parent was married to a different women outside england and had children from his second wife but this service continued with its fleecing actions, which legally constitutes theft. They are again edging on the verge of legal action.

In addition, they are well known to post or call threatening and harrasing messages against paying parents, which in our conclusion are a 100% males. This is discrimination and a legal violation of a citizens rights and priviliges. In certain situations paying parents who in our observation are entirely males, continue to support their children privately and on a personal basis between them and their children. But despite that this dis(service) continue to harress and threat such male paying parents.

This is a service worthy of being disposed off to garbage bin with legal action pursued against its administration and top officials.

Why is it when you call, you wait for nearly an hour then you get to speak to some incompetent moron that has absolutely no idea of what they are doing and can’t answer any questions that you have.?
The system is so corrupt and seems to be a government run scam to bleed money from the paying parent. I am in total agreement that I should pay child maintenance but there comes a point when the figures just don’t add up. They take more than you should be paying and then they tell you that you have arrears on the account but can’t tell you why there are arrears and then the arrears go up £500 to a £1000 a month! When the money is taken directly from your wages.
You apply to take the CMS to court, wait 3 years to hear from the courts and then the courts tell you they won’t continue to a trial! WTF!
Anyone else going through the same deal?

Unfortunately they are Legal scammers, they plan is to destroy parents, useless help line without qualifications,it is impossible to find out from where they are getting figures, they know one answer HMRC.

Zero point of this company honest to god 🤦‍♀️
I just genuinely can’t even be arsed to go into how awful they are, wasn’t worth the £20 sign up fee. They hardly ever chase for the money and if they do it takes months and months lol loads of different loop holes so you could be owe £20,000 in arrears and csa still won’t be able to get it 🤦‍♀️ staff are rude and each one is as thick as the next, none of them can tell you anything.

Pushed to the absolute brink time after time. Totally unjust and unfair system leaving paying parents in utter desperation. Serves nothing other than to break people and relationships with their children with outlandish miscalculations, no attempt to rectify errors and arrears which suddenly appear from nowhere with no justification. Payments worked out on Gross income meaning it’s worked out before you’re taxed, so effectively money you do not actually have, see or benefit from. Nevermind rent/mortgage, living and countless other bills!!!!! Pushed me to breaking point several times over the years 🤬

The CMS is not fit for purpose. It is in a total mess with responses without explanation, incorrect calculations, failure to respond, email today says one thing totally wrong, followed by text with unbelievably conflicting message. This service is costing lives and making people ill. What government is going to do something about it?

Absolutely shocking service, constantly says my payments are changing, and that I am in arrears, eve though I made a payment on account, then send me a letter to say they have tried to contact me several times (they haven't to my knowledge), and moving me on to collect and pay for something I am not aware of. Takes over an hour to answer the phone, and then to add this I raised a complaint as per their process, I had the letter tracked and they recieved in the end of March and they are to contact me about that. Really starting to impact my mental health as they create such a stressful experence. You should able to have different ways to contct them, or leave messages on your account page for them, only having a phone number is poor, and then not adhering to their own complaint process is shocking.

I've never known a company who send letters telling you how much arrears are owed and when you call them because ure child is owed hundreds more in missed payments. For them to tell you the financial abuser has payed over 1000 to much so it will be taking of money hes still not paying! 3 hours today and many many MANY more calls ive made. Ive got to say if you a mum who the abuser only has a hold of money over you now. This collect and pay service isn't for you. Don't do it! Its a kick in the teeth over and over again! Today im even considering closing it down as its not worth the stress and anxiety this company causes considering their supposed to be their for the child. HONESTLY DONT DO IT!!

Absolutely disgraceful service. Vague letters, no proper explanations, inconsistent decisions and what feels like complete double standards. You are left chasing by phone for answers, often after long waits, only to speak to people who cannot properly explain what is happening.
For an organisation dealing with child maintenance, the lack of transparency and accountability is appalling. The whole process is unfair, stressful and not fit for purpose.

What a shambolic and disgusting organisation to deal with was told that money was going to come out of my wages next month on the 19th of June and was going to go up and then started to take money out of my wages on the 21st of may as I was paying weekly directly from my bank account when I got paid I rang them back to get more clarification and they just weren’t interested I told them I’m struggling and I’m behind on my priority bills they just don’t care at all this is why a lot of people commit suicide because of people like this these vile creatures need to be investigated asap.

The level of incompetence shown by the CMS has been staggering. Letters taking weeks to arrive, online portals not working, being told one thing by a member of staff then something completely different happening….. I’ve never felt so frustrated or helpless dealing with an organisation before. Especially given that it deals with an incredibly important topic - our children!

I would rate it zero if I could. They are corrupted and not fit for purpose. They don’t follow their own government guidelines and ruin peoples lives. Even when mountains of evidence and facts are provided they still don’t care and will continue to cause chaos. They even commit fraud by stealing money from bank accounts with made up calculations. Their own tribunal and complaints service is governed by themselves - so nothing can be trusted or impartial. A huge reform is needed as this will be the next post office scandal.

Not fit for purpose, system is a failure for both paying parents and receiving parents, they scam money out of hard working individuals who are willing to pay their fair share of cost to support their children, however do nothing to help parents who are in the receiving end, dealing with parents who refuse to support their children. The system is BROKEN!!

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) is fundamentally broken and unfit for purpose. The staff consistently demonstrate a shocking lack of competence and routinely ignore official HMRC evidence provided to them. Instead of following clear financial data, they act entirely as they please, causing immense and unnecessary stress. The organisation is failing families and needs a complete overhaul.

Worst service ever, said I had £9000 arrears but couldn’t provide any proof as they said it was all destroyed when they changed from CSA to CMS. ICE investigated and said that nothing had been done wrong by CMS and that the £9000 stands. Several phone calls I was told if I had been a better father then I wouldn’t be dealing with them. Was interested in how they were making me feel or that I suffer with mental health. It’s time they were shut down