Child Maintenance Service Reviews 

Waiting time on phone is always over an hour. Webchat is useless and cannot help you with any queries other than to tell you to phone in. Reporting a change of income going up results in an immediate and opaque increase. Reporting a change of income down takes forever to register and despite naming a completion date, it runs weeks past what it says it should take. Absolutely useless service as can be seen by every single review on this page. Why does the UK Government not do something to fix this?

Will my review make a difference..probably not. Parents are either comitting suicide across the country or giving up their jobs because of the ridiculous calculations of child maintenance and this service! A service that is unfit for service. My daughter turned 18 - 2 months ago completing A Levels. Im now in the lurch as to whats happening with payments, ive been asked to provide proof and proof Child benefit has stopped? Why am i being asked to provide that as a father, thats the CMS's job to look into surely? as Child benefit would not give those details to me anyway!...Maybe our soft government will do something to sort this service out at some point, but i doubt it.

This service is terrible and needs a complete review. Despite accepting that they have used the wrong figures in calculating my child maintenance payments, they rejected my claim to recalculate. I now have to lodge a formal appeal to the tribunal to have the calculation reviewed. Which could take months and me paying an additional £200 a month extra in child maintenance.

Nothing but incompetence
As much use as an ashtray on a motorbike

Absolutely awful. Online portal doesn’t work, had to reset my pin and still wouldn’t accept my new pin. Then called them and had too listen to 10 minutes of an automated voice telling me to go online when I was told online that I couldn’t do anything online and had to call!! Makes no sense!!!

Totally shocking system, automated, with agents who are clueless. Both parents will suffer using this system and the net result is children loose touch with theitr Dad's.

1 star as unable to give it a 0

Owed thousands of pounds by paying parent and nothing is being done.

Parents who pay are rinsed and parent who Dont get away with it.

2 years ive been fighting just to get my child what he deserves and I haven’t received a single penny.

Fobbed off and told lies constantly.

Not fit for purpose.

Dreadful service got told 3 different things about my case had put complaint in and now after 6weeks after reporting change in circumstances and told it’s all been sorted I get message asking send proof of p45 really bad service and I’m taking further now complete joke

Terrible worse than bailiffs and doorstep lenders in all of my years dealing with these people never can i say iv had a positive experience iv complained made subject access requests also sought legal advice they will force people to give up work due to the ludicrous amounts requested for a parent with a 50/50 split corrupt to the core

CHILD MAINTENANCE SERVICE IS NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE

On hold for 65 minutes and no answer - I am asking a simple question that is not being answered!
No way of getting hold of them!

For Jesse-

Thank you for your help today while I try to sort out my child maintenance case. I appreciate ur help so much, and am so grateful for the advice you gave me.

Thank you again!

My experience with the Child Maintenance Service has been nothing short of disgraceful. The treatment of paying parents is appalling, and the repeated failure of CMS staff to follow their own rules, guidelines, and statutory obligations has caused unnecessary stress, financial instability, and emotional harm.
The level of incompetence displayed is unacceptable. Cases are mishandled, information is ignored, and decisions are made without proper investigation or evidence. Paying parents are treated as an afterthought, left to deal with the consequences of CMS's mistakes while staff show no urgency, accountability, or Professionalism.

I am disgusted by the way this service operates. The lack of consistency, transparency, and basic competence has had real-world consequences for me and my family. CMS's failures are not minor administrative errors - they are systemic issues that damage lives.
I am demanding a thorough, independent investigation into the conduct, processes, and decision-making within CMS. The current standard of service is unacceptable, harmful, and far below what any government body should be allowed to deliver.

Unlike a lot of people im extremely savvy when it comes to book keeping and I always make sure I have evidence to back up allegations, I will go to the papers regarding the matter of CMS to help prevent the continued failures by this governing body, and help future paying parents in a fair system.

Terrible Government department that is not fit for purpose.

My son had a terrible experience during a period when his mental health was poor. I pursued the matter endlessly with formal written complaints which were left unanswered until I involved the local MP.

I took my complaints to the Independent Case Examiner and they have upheld all my complaints.

I advise everyone experiencing problems to involve their MP and perhaps someone will eventually realise that this department and its flawed computer system needs to be disbanded.
This is another Post office scandal in the making, I hope a TV company will make a docudrama and perhaps yhen things will change.

This is a private company that profits from the abuse of children and unjustly alienated parents. All who choose to work for such evil do so knowing full well that they choose to make their living from the ongoing abuse of children and of unjustly alienated parents. May you be judged, held accountable and justice find you all.

Whilst the system is there to enforce parents who are trying to avoid paying support for their children, and rightly so, it sadly also leaves the floodgates open for abuse in and after a malicious divorce by a parent alienating a child from a loving parent, to enflict that parent with a financial penalty in addition to emotional turmoil of losing access to their child or children. The CMS enforce this blindly with no empathy or rationale. This can financially cripple said parent and leave them penniless to pursue what is always a costly family court battle for child access. In my opinion it is long in need of a significant overhaul, in need of thorough investigation in each case. Why do I write this? Because I am the father of a beautiful boy who my ex wife alienated from me during the financial clean break stage of our divorce, encouraged by somewhat unethical solictors. The CMS works blindly as a weapon which, as long as that parent withholds access to the child, as happened in my case, supports them unequivocally. Further there is no downstream control of the funds you pay for your child and no guarantee that they are used for the support of the child you love so much.

People working there can't read and do simple maths like 2+2. Everything take ages, before someone will pick up a call you have waste over an hour and later person you spoke with can't do nothing anyway, some of this peoples lieying and do nothing about their job. This is just disgusting and just disaster. I'm not surprised that some people did suicide or be close because of them.

Dealing with Child Maintenance has been an absolute nightmare. They are incredibly difficult to get hold of, communication is poor, and I rarely receive any updates unless I spend ages chasing them myself. It feels like there is very little effort made to recover outstanding payments or enforce arrears.
My daughter turns 13 in September, and I separated from her father just before she turned two. He has never been involved in her life, doesn't see or speak to her, and has built up nearly £12,000 in arrears. Despite this, it feels like no meaningful action has been taken to recover what is owed.
To make matters worse, I constantly seem to get locked out of my online account, making it even harder to access information or contact anyone. The whole process is frustrating, stressful, and leaves you feeling completely unsupported. Families relying on Child Maintenance deserve better communication, better enforcement, and a service that actually keeps them informed.

SHAMEFUL FOR A GOVERNMENT RUN COMPANY. I have been waiting 11 months so far for a payment towards the arrears which is owed. I am continually promised a call from a manager or my case worker would call back instead. But nothing yet again. So tomorrow ill have to be put on hold for an hour and then speak to someone yet again who will promise someone will call me back with an update. Although this wont happen again. I think my next step is contacting my MP.

What a nightmare this service is over hour like waiting and still not answering it a joke there quick enough to get hold off you for money and other stuff very bad service