The Child Maintenance Service deals with maintenance for children in most circumstances. This means that lawyers cannot help very much if the CMS has already made an assessment and the payer refuses to pay or if the payee or payer think the figure the CMS have decided upon is wrong.

At this point the responsibility rests with the CMS to take action, by hearing a form of informal appeal or by taking the non-payer to Court to make them pay by, for example, asking the Court to make an Attachment of Earnings Order so that the money is stopped out of their wages each week.

There are restrictions on what the CMS can deal with. They cannot for example deal with maintenance for children over 16 years of age (or under 20 if they are in approved education or training).

Where a parent who should be making payments is living abroad, the CMS can, in theory, enforce payment by i) getting a Court order and ii) getting it enforced by local law enforcement authorities. They can send orders to all EU states, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and some others but so far as we are aware, they actually never do this because it costs them too much money.  You can personally apply to the court for a maintenance order in these circumstances.

Unfortunately most people find it uneconomic to try to tackle difficulties with the CMS using lawyers. Instead we recommend contacting NACSA which specialises in providing advice, support and information.

You can avoid relying in the CMS by making an agreement with the other parent. Ideally you should have child maintenance looked at and sorted out at the same time as spousal maintenance as part of agreeing your divorce settlement.

If you are considering divorce or separation you should take advice from an experienced family lawyer to ensure you understand your rights and obligations and to help you reach an agreement to avoid having to rely on the CMS.