Kira's story

When I became pregnant with my son, I hadn’t planned to have a baby as I was still at university and was experiencing homelessness due to a family issue.  My ex-partner was really supportive at the time and we decided we would raise our child together.

Everything changed after my 12-week scan. It seemed to really panic my ex-partner and shortly after our relationship completely broke down and I was left on my own.

Shortly before my son was born, I found out that my ex had moved to London.  I was devastated that he had decided to move so far away from his child and that he wouldn’t play a part in his life.

At this point, I knew I had to put in a claim through the Child Maintenance Service (CMS).  Although I had been working as many hours as possible, money was tight and I needed to make sure my son would be provided for.

The problems began straight away. My ex-partner was working in London, but the CMS based the initial payment calculations on the part time job he’d had when still living in Fife, and I was told I would receive just £58 per month.

Things were really difficult for me financially, and I was forced to borrow money from friends and family for essentials.

It took a futher two months before I was able to get the CMS to update their records and take into account the income from my ex-partner’s new job in London, and by August – six months after my son was born – I was told by the CMS that I should have been receiving around £300 per month.

The CMS took action to collect the money directly from my ex-partner’s employer, but unfortunately they wouldn’t co-operate and I was left without money for essentials again.

The CMS eventually threatened the employer with legal action, and they were forced to pay.  Things settled for a short time, but when my ex’s payments were reviewed by CMS, they once-again defaulted to earnings based on his part time job in Fife, and my payments were reduced again in error back to just £58 per month.

I spent hours calling the CMS to try and sort out my payments but received different information from different call handlers.  One CMS employee I spoke with assured me that they had rectified their mistake and that I would be receiving updated payments.  As a result I took out a loan to cover me until my money came in but was devastated when my payments stayed the same as before.

When I called the CMS again, I was told that there was no record of my previous conversation and that there would be no change to my payments.

Being a single-parent is challenging enough without the added stress of constantly having to chase for updates on payments and being given different information by different CMS employees.

It doesn’t make sense to me that an organisation like CMS would have such poor systems and no procedures in place for sharing or recording information on individual cases.  I am a persistent person, but it is exhausting and time consuming.

I am still battling with the CMS to get the money my son is owed even today.  It is a long and slow process, but I’m not giving up.  I just hope the payments come through in time for Christmas so my son can have everything he deserves.