Child Maintenance Service Reviews 

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!

Very poor service. I waited 60 minutes to speak to someone. They put me on hold while they "looked into the case" and after a few minutes the line went dead. Despite at the start of the call them checking all my contact details they did not phone back to deal with the query and I don't have another 60 minutes to phone them back. Very poor service

Ridiculous call waiting times, waiting over 30-40 mins. Staff are unhelpful, just never ending headache and inconvenience caused with no resolution.

Service is not fit for purpose. I've spent at least a day a week for nearly two years trying to sort out my case with them. I've now resigned from my job because of them. Their bureaucratic and inefficient processes are inconsistently applied. Their case workers contradict each other. They don't understand their own rules and processes even. It's just a total mess. They should scrap it and start again.

I am a father who happily commits to support his children with love, as much time as they ever want and financial support which rarely reaches them directly. I am also an educationalist and business person and wish to be as dispassionate about this woeful service as I can.

1. Performance. CMS has target timelines for addressing changes in circumstance. It does not achieve them a cases are moved aimlessly between departments.
2. Institutional Bias. Each appeal time or manadtory reconsideration has a different target timeframe. This can leave a payee receiving a collect and pay notice while their unemployment i still under review. Case managers do not read across case notes they just look at the individual process. They shouldnt be called case managers.
3. Lack of Transparency. I now take screen shots of online submissions because they can disappear from my account. Dates for submissions change or are removed. Letters inform what decision has been made without saying why.

Shocking organisation, when I dont even get to see my daughter,no wonder men kill themselves,money is tight as it is,without these ripping your eye balls out,it's not a shock when i seen a 1 star rating they don't even deserve that 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡

I have been using child maintenance for 5 years +, each month the customer service is getting worse.

There is no support for the receiving parent at all even with paying the extra £20/£25 fee to set up! I have lost over £1000 of child maintenance. I call up every month prior to going to direct and pay and telly them the amount I was paid turns out not a single person on the other side of the phone recorded how much I was getting paid and was lost £800 of maintenance that year!

Since then I have gone on to direct and pay to go through the other parents employer and guess what.... no payment for months! And still being on hold for over an hour each time trying to speak to someone of where is the payment cause the other parent has shown me evidence out of their payslip that the child maintenance has been paid! Yet im not receiving it... so where is it?

On top of that I wrote a letter of complaint back in July (2025) and have no received a single response. But a text to say they received it!!

Oh..... and everything is need help with you CANNOT do online!!

Worst service I have ever received!

Wasting time away from my ADHD, AUTISTIC, memory process delay, mental health issues and self harming child is a RISK when you have to try to keep them busy when sat on hold for hours!!!

Worst service ever. Takes so long to get through to be able to speak with someone. There is no email address or web support. Impossible to call while you’re abroad. If I could give zero stars, I would. God help everyone who has ever had to deal with them. Shameful

Absolutely disgusting company they just want a profit they don't care about you or the children lie after lie

1. Make sure every interaction is recorded.
2. When you disagree with them and have evidence proving their incompetence or bias, move straight to steps 3 and 4.
3. Demand a mandatory reconsideration.
4. Take them to Tribunal and expose their failings.(before you can take them to Tribunal a mandatory reconsideration is needed)

Hope this helps ....