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Fri, 15 May 2026

Fri, 15 May 2026 'They took £20,000 I didn't owe': Parents hit by child maintenance errors

John Hammond is one of 30 parents who told BBC Your Voice they'd experienced problems with the CMS.
Maths teacher John Hammond was shocked when he discovered that £20,000 had been taken from his bank account by the Child Maintenance Service (CMS). The money was taken for child maintenance arrears, but Hammond's children were 25 and 28, and their child support arrangement had finished over a decade ago. He believed it was a scam. Hammond is not alone in experiencing issues with the CMS. Over 30 parents have told the BBC that they've experienced miscalculated child maintenance arrears, money wrongly taken from wages or bank accounts, and lengthy court battles with the CMS. Many of these cases involve child support arrangements concluded many years ago. The CMS replaced the Child Support Agency (CSA) in 2012. Its job is to ensure a child's living costs are paid when one of their parents does not live with them. The CMS uses a formula to work out how much a parent should pay, and can take money from wages, bank accounts, benefits or pensions if parents cannot arrange payments privately. However, the experiences shared with the BBC mirror concerns about the CMS raised with the government after parents told a House of Lords report that money had been taken "inappropriately" when they were trying to comply. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which runs the CMS, did not address individual cases or explain why in some cases money was taken wrongly from bank accounts. John Hammond's ordeal started in 2002 when he received a letter from the now-defunct CSA saying he owed £947. He believed it was a mistake and paid nothing. However, in 2019, the CMS took £20,000 from his bank account without warning. Hammond disputes the accuracy of the calculation and believes that the CMS should have notified him before taking the money. Richard's case is similar to Hammond's. His children are now adults, but he still receives demands for child maintenance payments. He disputes the accuracy of the calculations and has had to take out a loan to pay for his children's education. The Lords report found that the calculation formula used by the CMS to decide how much a parent should pay is outdated and does not reflect the structure of modern families. The government has committed to conducting a review into the CMS' calculation model and considering the report's recommendations. Parents who spoke to the BBC say they do not dispute paying child maintenance, but they do dispute the accuracy of calculations and enforcement action being taken before appeals were resolved. They are calling for an overhaul of the CMS so mistakes like this don't happen again. Abigail Wood, chief executive at Gingerbread, a charity for single parent families, said that it had campaigned for a reform of the CMS as it was "failing parents and children alike". Michelle Counley from the National Association for Child Support Action (NACSA) called for "serious investment and a joined-up way of working". Hammond and Richard are among parents who want to see an overhaul of the CMS. They believe that getting their money back did not feel like a victory, but rather the end of a long fight to recover money that the CMS had no right to take in the first place.