This campaign began with one paying parent's experience — over 10 years of continuous payments, one missed direct debit caused by a bank error, and a system that responded with punishment instead of process. The case is ongoing.
I have been a paying parent registered with the Child Maintenance Service for over 10 years, making more than 120 consecutive monthly payments throughout. I maintained a clean payment record from day one — paying every amount due in full and on time. I was not a parent avoiding responsibility — I was a parent doing exactly what the system requires, month after month, year after year.
When my child turned 16, CMS had a legal obligation to review whether they remained a qualifying child. Under CMS rules, payments for a child aged 16 or over are only lawfully due if they are in approved full-time education of 12 or more hours per week. CMS conducted no meaningful review. The question of whether the legal criteria continued to be met was simply never asked.
A further annual review was conducted with my child approaching their 18th birthday. At 18, payments cease entirely unless the child is in approved full-time education of 12 or more hours per week. Once again, CMS failed to investigate. No attendance evidence was requested. No verification was performed.
My child turned 18 in November 2025. From this point, maintenance payments are only lawfully due if they are in approved full-time education of a minimum of 12 hours per week. I have reasonable grounds to believe this condition is not being met. I formally requested that CMS investigate and verify the qualifying child status. CMS did not act.
My bank cancelled my direct debit to CMS without any instruction from me. I immediately contacted CMS to notify them and contacted the resident parent directly. CMS refused to reinstate direct debit, forcing me onto manual payments despite a 10+ year perfect payment history. The cancellation was entirely outside my control — yet CMS placed the entire burden of managing payments manually onto me.
After a single missed manual payment — following over a decade of continuous payments — CMS issued a Deduction from Earnings Order against Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust without warning, without contact, and without giving me any opportunity to explain. The DEO demands over £1,000 per month from my salary, on top of a disputed arrears balance of nearly £2,000 — a combined financial demand exceeding £14,000 in the first year alone. I cleared the full outstanding balance to £0.00 within three days of becoming aware. CMS issued the order anyway.
A formal complaint was submitted to CMS by special recorded delivery, setting out all of the above failures. A fraud report was simultaneously submitted to DWP. CMS has a published standard of acknowledging complaints within 5 working days and resolving within 40 working days. They did not acknowledge the complaint. They did not provide any interim response. They made no contact whatsoever during the entire 40-working-day window.
On the exact day that the 40-working-day complaint window expired, CMS added £1,676.60 in backdated charges in a single entry — representing 85% of the entire arrears figure. Without these entries the balance would have been £292.64. The timing of this entry — added on the last possible day of the complaints window — raises serious questions about process and intent that CMS has never been asked to answer.
I submitted a formal challenge letter to CMS by special recorded delivery and sent full documentation to the Independent Case Examiner. ICE confirmed receipt but advised they require a final CMS decision before they can formally open an investigation — that pathway remains open once a final decision is issued. During a recorded call to CMS on the same day, a CMS advisor confirmed that an investigation had been logged on their own system with the note: child not in full-time education. CMS's own internal records acknowledge the question was raised — and was live at the time they were continuing to enforce payments.
On the same day as my escalation, my GP signed me off work for three weeks due to stress and mental health difficulties directly caused by CMS's conduct. Medication was prescribed. This is documented medical evidence of the human cost of maladministration — a GP fit note confirming that a system designed to support children was causing serious harm to a parent who had done everything right.
CMS issued their mandatory reconsideration outcome stating that the income figure had not changed by 25% and the amount would therefore stand. They addressed none of the six formal grounds of complaint I had submitted. This constitutes CMS's final decision on the matter — opening the right to appeal to the First Tier Tribunal.
CMS wrote to confirm they had investigated Bayley's education status by asking the resident parent whether he was still in education. She denied any change. CMS accepted her denial without obtaining a single college attendance record — actual weekly hours attended versus the 12-hour legal threshold. The resident parent is under active DWP fraud investigation. I immediately submitted a new Mandatory Reconsideration on five grounds and formally updated my MP with specific requests to obtain college attendance records using statutory powers.
Following CMS's mandatory reconsideration outcome of 13th May 2026, the right to appeal to the First Tier Tribunal opened. The appeal is being formally submitted — citing all five grounds including qualifying child status, the incorrect income figure, the backdated entries, the DEO, and the two annual review failures. The deadline for submission is 13th June 2026.
This case is ongoing and unresolved. A First Tier Tribunal appeal is being submitted. A Subject Access Request is outstanding. A DWP fraud investigation is active. An MP has been formally contacted. If you have experienced similar treatment — payments made faithfully for years, complaints ignored, charges appearing without warning, enforcement action taken before your complaint was investigated — your story matters. Share it in the community stories section, or join the campaign. The only way to change this is together.