Child Maintenance Service Reviews 

I have acted as my son's representative due to his mental health problems and my experience as a man in his late seventies has been horrendous with the CMS.

They have not adhered to their own policy regarding people with mental health issues and bombard him and I with endless communications often receiving 3 separate letters in one day all giving conflicting information.

We had to obtain help from our MP and a member of The House if Lords before our written complaints were dealt with and upheld.

However, the behaviour from CMS remains the same, unhelpful, offering no support to those with difficulties and sending endless communications which are contradictory and confusing.

The stress this department causes to their clients is unsurmountable and I can imagine could result in tragic outcomes for many people.

This department and its staff need to be urgently reviewed as their behaviour towards people with mental health issues is deplorable and inhumane.

As much use as t!ts on a fish, mt wages dropped by 35% it took nearly 17 weeks, and I phoned them every week for 13 of those weeks for them to change my payments, when my wages went back to normal and they could take more money it was done within 5 days, and they claim to help both sides😂😂 19 years and yet still waiting to find a useful member off staff, they could not care less about you just the money

10 years of maladministration. RPs received nothing I had all monies paid back plus consolatory payment. The CMS stresses people over the edge. The DWP disclosed the CMS mortality rate which shows 3,X The national average in the Paying Parents demographic, higher in some age groups.
IT Systems that make Post Office Horizon seem good as accuracy and disparate systems produce errors across the nation.
This is Horizon MK 2 on steroids. The users know it, the staff know it ( see Glassdoor), the politicians know it and the civil servants are hiding it. The big issue here is that it's not that parents are failing to support their children, but are no longer here for them.
You must complain, you must go to ICE and to your MP. It is clear from the reviews urgent reform is required and justice delivered for those harmed as I and the RPs were.

Everything takes ages to process. Also they have an utter mess in their office. The web service looks being updated by hand. While calling their number, every consultant says different things. The only good thing was that after a long wait they have managed to deal with my case.

God help anyone that has to deal with these muppets. Completely incompetent. Never provide back up to assessments. I've been trying to to resolve arrears for over a year now.

This company is creating fraudulent arrears against people then producing fraudulent evidence in court against them. They force the courts to be biased using section 33 which states the court can't question the calculation. How can peoples human rights be removed so easily by a government that claim we can't stop illegal criminals entering our country because of human right. This system is a joke and is killing hundreds a year. It is a extremist group made to terrorise people.

Absolutely shambles I pay £270 pm for 2 boys which I absolutely love to bits but haven't seen them since June 2025 apart from there Nativity play in primary school at Xmas 2025. It should be £250 then the robbing gits take £20 of for charge. I get roughly 1230 pm take the £270 of then rent and other bills there a discrase.

Lots of disgruntled fathers taking up issue with an EXTREMELY important organisation. Without them, I would not have received a single penny. I AM SO GRATEFUL!!!

One star is generous.

The Child Maintenance Service is not broken by accident — it is broken by design.

I was placed into fictitious arrears despite doing everything required of me. I notified CMS immediately when my circumstances changed, complied fully, and repeatedly chased them for clarity. Their failure to act, delay decisions, and provide accurate calculations was then used against me.

Key failures:
• Decisions made without evidence or basic verification
• Long delays followed by retrospective penalties
• Arrears created solely due to CMS inaction
• Enforcement threats issued without lawful documentation
• Zero accountability when errors are proven

Even after a Tribunal confirmed CMS were wrong, there was no apology, no correction of harm, and no urgency to put matters right. Instead, the burden is placed entirely on the paying parent to fight an opaque system that does not follow its own rules.

This is not about avoiding responsibility — it is about a government body that:
• Penalises compliance
• Rewards delay and incompetence
• Operates without transparency
• Causes avoidable financial and emotional harm

If this were a private company, it would not be allowed to trade.

Until CMS is independently audited, held accountable, and stripped of its enforcement powers without due process, it will continue to damage families while claiming to “support children”.

Avoid if you value fairness, accuracy, or basic administrative competence.

The Child Maintenance Service are a front for state sponsored extortion and run by bullies who are too focused on chasing targets and ticking boxes to put children and families first.
They act with impunity and anonymously.
They act at a glacier speed, lie, misinform and give conflicting information.
If you are PAYE you're an easy target to punish and add to the figures in the resolved target.
They actively discriminate against paying parents,
After an 18 month battle they refuse to use submitted bank statements as proof of payment, yet can deliver a DEO in 12 days.
It took 5 months for them to provide an initial payment plan on a new case and then back dated it to create arrears. I had paid voluntarily for this period, same amount each month and as it turned out I had overpaid.
They have had my bank statements as proof. I was still put on collect and pay.
They claim the delay was because I am homeless they could not contact me. I already had an existing case with my first exwife to whom I've paid maintenance to for over a decade without issue , this means they already had my mobile number, my email and I was registered for the online portal.
They took 5 months to return my son to the plan after he returned to fulltime education, despite me calling multiple times to correct this.
I asked for an account statement which I was told in writing would take 12 weeks. It took 40.
When it arrived it was so inaccurate I thought it was someone else's sent by mistake. Payments are wrong and dates of payments too.
They refuse to accept they're wrong, if they had addressed this promptly it would of been simple to correct.
They're own delays have made it complicated.
I have no issues paying for my children, they are mine,I paid voluntarily to ensure they're welfare but I cannot afford to pay more than I should I need to live and find a home myself. My 2nd exwife has taken advantage of their incompetence and weaponised CMS to gain more.
She has remarried, she has 2 incomes, benefits and my maintenance. She remains in the home with anything of mine she chose to keep.
Ii am now beginning the process of contacting the independent case examiner after 2 years of trying to prove there are no arrears. I have had the arrears taken twice over and paid a considerable amount of charges.
Your MP is supposed to hurry them up, but they just mislead them too.
They ignore emails, do not call you when promised and lie.
If you can arrange payment between yourself and your ex do so, these vampires will mess it up if involved.
They literally could not find their own ass or anybody else's with both hands.

If I can give them zero rating I would have done so.. shameful that these people are dealing with such important and sensitive issues yet they have no knowledge and no will to actually help.. Broken Britain

Only actually get things sorted by calling them IF you’re willing or have the time to sit on hold for 30-50 mins. Constantly speaking to different advisors who don’t know the situation. I requested a callback from the person who dealt with case previously and shock, no phone call. Feel trapped and limited to anything I can do, especially when they have false information on a case. Been waiting since October to resolve the issue, now in December and still isn’t resolved. Let’s be honest, there is no chat option either, just a bluff to prevent you calling them. Searched the online portal high and low for it but there’s absolutely nothing on there, or anything to direct you too it. Zero help and feel as though hands are tied. Country is on its arse.

Locked out of my account trying to call cms but calls keep getting dropped does anyone know how else to contact them

Made payment like normal and cms decided to put payment to fictional arrears and then said I missed a payment and put me deductions of earnings which also puts 20% on top for themselfs which is fraud and obtaining moneys by deception

I have paid child maintenance on direct pay for years missing no payments and making additional payments on top for years however in April 2025 my daughters mother applied for child maintenance - because I didn’t respond on time to the letter informing me of this I got put on collect and pay adding 20% more in terms of charges for this service - however the only reason why I didn’t respond to the letter was I found my father dad at home the same day obliviously this traumatised me and although I did respond a week or so down the line. I may also add I didn’t miss any payments at all - they continued to take 20% collection fees on top I did ring to complain as my medical records and police documents tell there own story I got told there was no right of appeal. I told them surely there must be a right of appeal they said I could complain to a MP but laughed but it won’t work! As a honest paying parent I have lost all respect for them completely

Really a joke someone should of sent letters or email to stop money going out from my benefits from last year until now but they didn't. Phone up don't seem to know what's going on until you really put youre foot down now because their mistakes its a,waiting game for my refund if at all I hope no one else has go few this

This service just gets worse. Nobody picks up calls. Says online chat is available however I don’t have that option. The service is basically non existent. Other parent constantly fails to make payments and no legal action is ever taken despite arrears just pilling up. Fail to investigate also. Nothing but excuses made for the paying parent.

Dreadful service. Calculations are consistently wrong, they don't chase the other parent enough for the money (if at all)! Can never get through on the phone, and the online portal may as well not be there, it's constantly broken or not responding. Been left with zero support since the claim was made. Pointless service that is allowing deadbeat parents to get away with it.

Clearly these people dont have an interest in genuine customer service, they are all about the receiving scrounger parent, very one sided, no consideration to the father's who have there kid turned against him and has had nothing to do with his dad for over 2 years now, yet the father has the burden of paying the scrounger mothers for the privilege of the whole thing, seriously winging women on here, nothing but problems from second they open there legs.
The actual date of all this was Dec 2023 within a few days of my mum's unexpected sudden death, this pathetic organisation chasing me up for there first demanded payment, as the scrounger told them she hadn't got money, so compassionate.

Like nearly every other review I'm at a loss of how dysfunctional the cms are. Lies, incorrect amounts that change daily without any explanation, broken promises and even ignored my MP. I have been trying to raise a second complaint with the ombudsman since February 25 and in November I find out he didn't even submit the case and has lied to me ever since saying he was chasing updates! Thanks Gagan Mohindra for adding to the stress and despair! I have wasted countless days trying to resolve my issues (on going for over 2 years now) and have got no where every time. Just try and get a financial breakdown of your case! They say it takes 6 weeks - I have literally in writing and verbally requested this over 50 times as I don't think they have charged me correctly in the last 28 months and to this day have never received one! Not fit for purpose doesn't even do them justice!