Pros and cons of arrangements by Child Maintenance Service
Sometimes parents cannot reach a family-based arrangement about child maintenance. There might be no trust between you or other reasons that stop you agreeing child maintenance. Or you might prefer to involve the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) to assess and collect payments. CMS can also enforce a parent’s payments.
Advantages and disadvantages
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| Using the Child Maintenance Service Direct Pay option is a free service. |
There is a charge for the Child Maintenance Collect and Pay service. |
| This might be suitable if you have a strained relationship with the other parent. You may find it helpful for the Child Maintenance Service to collect and enforce the right level of maintenance to pay. |
When people have a family-based arrangement, this can get money to the receiving parent more quickly. Also it can be easier to resolve breakdowns in payment when a third party is not involved. |
| If you don’t know where the other parent is, or they don’t want to accept responsibility, the Child Maintenance Service can try and trace them, assess payments, collect payments and enforce when they don’t pay. |
Due to the formal process and the paperwork involved with Child Maintenance Service arrangements, it can take time to update these arrangements, for example when your circumstances change. |
| You don’t have to be in contact with the other parent if you don’t want to, for example if there’s a history of abuse. |
Once you ask the Child Maintenance Service to decide on how much maintenance to pay, you have to abide by their decision. It is not possible to ask the Child Maintenance Service to collect a different amount of maintenance other than what has been determined by their formula. |
| The amount of child maintenance will be set by the Child Maintenance Service. They will provide parents with the relevant payment or collection schedules to advise them of their payment information. |
There is less flexibility about how and when you make and receive payments. Making special arrangements for things like summer holidays is more difficult with a Child Maintenance Service arrangement than with a family-based arrangement. The Child Maintenance Service uses a set formula to work out payments. |
| You can go back to a family-based arrangement in the future, if both parents agree. |
You have to share your details with the Child Maintenance Service. With a family-based arrangement, you only have to share your details with the other parent. |
| If a parent won’t share their details, the Child Maintenance Service has the authority to get those details from other government bodies, or the parent's employer. |
The more ‘legal’ things become, the harder it can be sometimes on your child and your relationship with the other parent. |