Child Maintenance Service Reviews 

The Child Maintenance Service urgently needs reform. Many fathers experience extreme distress as a result of unfair calculations, poor communication, and a complete lack of understanding of individual family circumstances. The system seems designed to penalise rather than support responsible parents.

There are countless cases where fathers who genuinely care for and support their children are treated as though they are neglectful. Payments are often set at unrealistic levels, without proper consideration of living costs or shared care arrangements. When fathers struggle financially, they are threatened with enforcement actions rather than offered guidance or understanding.

This approach causes serious emotional and mental strain. Many men have spoken publicly about the despair and hopelessness they feel when faced with an unbalanced and inflexible system. It is deeply concerning that some have even reached breaking point under this pressure.

A fair child maintenance system should protect children and ensure both parents are treated with dignity and respect. The current system fails to do this. It needs urgent review and accountability so that it truly supports families rather than tearing them apart.

Outdated, biased and extremely flawed system.

I have NO issues supporting my son financially. What I have a problem with is how the maintenance payments are calculated.

As the person paying maintenance, this system absolutely does not take into account your current circumstances.

I was bought to the brink of bankruptcy and losing my jomr, because this incredibly poor system doesn't take into account any of my mandatory out goings, like mortgage, loans, living costs etc etc etc.
It has taken me nearly two years to get back some sense of financial security agsin, with no thanks to the CMA.

However, the upshot is I am unable to financially afford to see my son because of the distances involved and have not seen him in two years as my ex is unwilling to bring him to me, even on the odd occasion.

It doesnt surprise me one jot when I read reports of father's loosing everything, or even committing suicide because they cannot look after their new family after moving on from separation, because this organisation simply does not care as long as the money is sent each month.

If this was a private collection firm, it would have been under investigation years ago.

Absolute sh#t show

The men moaning in the comments make me feel sick. The mither is the full time parent stop making excuses . Raising children usbt free regardless of your situation the child still needs funds to live so suck it up like we do every single living day. Now on to the almost non existent service. Child maintence are here to support the men who make children then abandon responsibilities. They don't have to pay a penny towards children and mothers are left in poverty . Useless service that should either be made mandatory like child support in US regardless of income or situatio . Find the money mate!. Or simply abolish the system because it isn't helping the people who need it the most .The children . You have to jump through years of hoops only to be told nil rate whilst the mothers are still baring the wright and brunt of parenthood so who is it actually helping ?Even though you have evidence the man is earningnover 4k a month . Child maintenance service is just a rouze for the goverment to take 4% from you . If it was there to help you , you would actually get what your owed from the dad's . Just stop giving your womb to these men . They don't deserve a thing . Set your children uP before ever giving a man your womb. Be a gold digger TODAY!

Disgusting.

After explaining my income is not what they are saying and I am being abused
They refused to listen (and often ended calls prior to speaking with a human after being on hold 4 hours plus )

Police then placed my son with me. CMS just wouldn't have it . After TWO years of my son living with me I STILL pay dad £300 monthly . Despite no arrears. A single parent to two kids and in part time minimum wage work.

Dad earns 100k a year child lives with me . But I must continue to pay HIM as they need HIM to verify my son lives with me .

Disgusting. My child is now in poverty because I am paying a high earning man maintenance for a child he does not have care of or even have any contact woth at all.

I even posted a reconsideration. Not a single communication on 12 months.

This has to be the most disgusting agency I have ever dealt with. They are encouraging abuse.

I now have left the claim my son is entitled too. Further than that because I now pau him (even though son is om my care???) We are now basically in poverty i pay him £300 that should be going on our child what am I paying for ??

Disgrace . This is the most disgusting scandal and the next generation is paying for it as parents camt feed them as they are paying for a childs care that actually lives with paying parent ? Wtf

Horrific.

My son had a tumour removed, the wound required 28 staples, the tumour was bigger than a football. He is recovering at home on 50% of his wages. He has informed cms as to his circumstances, but surprise surprise, they won’t reduce his payment. He has assured them that when he returns to work , he will resume paying the usual amount. However, the heartless scum at the cms apparently don’t believe him, despite him sending them proof of his situation. It’s high time that this department was either disbanded or undergoes a serious review.
They have consistently targeted people who are willing to pay for their children while others who have never paid a penny get away scot free. I tried to contact Mr Pat Mcfadden (minister in charge of cms, but cannot contact him directly. Perhaps he knows he would be inundated with complaints)

Spent over 2 hours trying to get through to the right department. Keep getting transferred and then cut off. Clearly they don't want to deal with things over the phone. Appalling.

I don’t usually write reviews, but after ten years of dealing with the Child Maintenance Service (CMS), I feel completely broken and let down by a system that’s supposed to be fair. Instead, it’s one-sided, inconsistent, and shows no care for fathers or mental health.

I’ve always paid what was asked of me even though I have not seen my kids for 5 years due to RP patent alienations. Yet my payments have jumped from £200 to £400 to £600 a month — and now, despite earning just £28,000 a year, I’ve been told I must pay £618.88 per week. That’s £2,500 a month — nearly all of my income. It’s simply impossible to live.

CMS has never taken my pension contributions into account, never explained where certain arrears came from, and placed me on a Direct Earnings Order even though I’ve always paid on time. I’ve asked for explanations and breakdowns, but all I get are automated letters and texts. No human understanding. No accountability.

The stress and pressure from this situation have caused serious damage to my mental health. I’ve been signed off work with anxiety and insomnia, and I’m now struggling to rebuild my life. Meanwhile, CMS continues to demand payments I simply cannot afford — and they don’t care what it’s doing to the people they’re supposed to help.

I’m not asking for sympathy — just fairness, transparency, and basic respect. The system is broken, and it’s destroying lives like mine. I hope someone in government or CMS reads this and realises the human cost of their policies.

If you’re a father going through the same thing — you’re not alone. This system desperately needs reform.

Appaling organisation that should be immediately disbanded. You cannot contact them (I have spent hours in the phone waiting for someone to answer), have sent 8 letters, and they still bombard me with letters saying the same thing over and over and over. It's actually tantamount to harassment. This must be where all the worst civil servants go. It's toally biased, there is now way to be heard, and I wouldn't be surprised if some people who taken their own lives because of their utter disrespect for human beings and common sense.

direct discrimination – less favourable treatment directly because of a protected characteristic. indirect discrimination – when everyone's treated the same but people with a protected characteristic are put at a disadvantage. CMS are rejecting my sick notes and my doctor's letter but they Instantly reject the evidence and proof I am earning less than they say. This is very poor for a government bodie they should be closed down for ever and never be revamped to abuse people more

Paying directly from many years but CMS always increased my payment never listen to me over the phone, rejected my change of income claim, I have no income now and CMS wants me to pay mother monthly payment and mother is threatening always to report me if I will not pay her . Absolutely unbelievable experience how CMS has no empathy with fathers and not accepting the official evidence and increasing the payment even if you are not earning presently what you were earning previously! their review outcome is also very slow and lengthy procedure and it’s always rejected rejected rejected

I would put zero stars if I could. The CMS is absolutely awful service, my daughter’s boy was living with his father whilst he was a money spinner and my daughter was paying for his upkeep. They have repeatedly refused to make allowances for her travelling to pick up her son from his fathers, who move 90 miles away from my grandsons home town. The father kicked my grandson out middle of August this year because he had left college and would no longer be eligible for child support, so he has gone to live with his mum, because the father hasn’t given up the child benefit they are still taking money from her for the boys maintenance even though she has proved he now lives with her. Every time she calls to try to get this resolved they say ring back in 3 weeks as the case is being reviewed, she calls back after 3 weeks and they ask for something else and puts the case back another 3 or more weeks. This service seems to be run by a bunch of idiots who don’t have a damn clue what they are doing or how their lack of resolution affects peoples lives. Absolute joke of a service and I don’t know how they seemingly have no guidelines they have to follow. She has formally asked for a SAR and they say they don’t know what this is. Fuming with the way they are treating my daughter

I am astounded that the CMS are allowed to act, seemingly without impunity or regulation. My son has received demands for payment towards a child that he had no idea existed, and is contesting parentage. There has been no consideration of his current financial commitments, and when the CMS were advised that he was unable to make a weekly payment due to his car insurance going out that day, we were simply told, “owning a car is seen as a luxury”. Really? When you live in a rural area and need it to get to work? When you’re contractually obligated to pay for it?The stress and negative MH impact being caused to someone who is barely out of their teens is unforgivable. There is something fundamentally wrong and disturbing with this system.

Did you all know if your a muslim it is against your religus beliefs to pay intrest or arrears and the child mantance have to look into this and find another way im not a Muslim but thinking of becoming one as I've allways been drawn to God just a thought for any paying ridiculous amounts of interest there added fees are a joke keep picking at what's left like rats

You just can't get through to them on the phone. Every time I need a query dealt with I end up having to get my MP involved. They rejected my claim in circumstances and when I try to check why it says service not available. It takes literally months to sort out something that should take 5 minutes. They're not for for purpose and they regularly give out wrong information.

1 Star only because it is not possible to rate this awful agency any lower. it takes forever to get through and when you do all they do is pay lip service. I have been trying to get a refund they own me for 8 month now. Absolutely useless.

Super long wait times on the phone.
Web Chat not longer works.
The repeated automated voice while on hold is a special type of hell along with the repetitive hold music. Putting up with this while being on hold for an hour is just evil.

Started a claim with csa in June it's now nearly October and they still haven't sorted my case out. I've rang several times just to be sugar coated that everything's alright. When it's not but hey, if I'm lucky hopefully it will be done before my child turns 20, wishful thinking.

Unbelievably bad!! No communication from them till they tell you your last payment was short (not told it was going up) so squared up the balance and next payment all correct but that’s not good enough. Now straight out of my wages and £120 a month extra with hundreds of pounds of fees on top!! All straight in their pockets. No help, sympathy or even apology, just these are the rules!! How do they get away with it??

Absolute shambles of an organisation. A web chat service that does nothing but direct you to an overstretched phone system where you can wait anything between 30 minutes and one hour just to get through. During that time, you have to listen to a voice telling you continually that you should be using the online system and threatening that you will be directed there if your call isn’t important. The same online system that cannot deal with the majority of issues. Thereafter it is a monumental task to get the untrained operator to understand why you are calling. Opaque system for working out payments that bears no relation to the online calculator they have. I have an agreed massive overpayment that is being ignored in the calculations for my payments. Everybody who works for CMS is stealing a wage and the whole system is designed to frustrate and annoy anybody trying to use it. If there was a zero star option it would be selected. Disgraceful bloated system of Government that should be replaced with AI as a matter of urgency.

Tbh these are the worst type of people to be given a job Scott and Julie, they enjoy harassing and bullying as if it's a fix for them. They have no human awareness of people's mental health or what they are dealing with, though it was explained multiple times, it's like if they are programmed and trained to be like this by their HR team which would say a lot, but then again Jackie was nice and compassionate when talking and understood, that makes me think these issues are with these two individuals and I can't believe that one of them is in a senior position. What horrible humans they are.