This petition was submitted during the 2019-2024 parliament
Rejected petition Make child maintenance a legal requirement regardless of employment
Currently the non residential parent only has to pay if they have a job and no dependants. It is also NOT a legal requirement. This means that if a parent gets told they have to pay a lot of money they just quit their job and then not pay a penny.
More details
My daughters dad has done this repeatedly over the years. He gets a job as soon as CMS tell him he has to pay me a certain amount (usually over £100 per month) he quits then the CMS change it to a stupid amount like £0 a month to support a growing child. This is not right. Then they drag their heels organising collect & pay.
This petition was rejected
Why was this petition rejected?
It’s not clear what the petition is asking the UK Government or Parliament to do.
Petitions need to call on the Government or Parliament to take a specific action.
We understand that you are concerned about current arrangements for calculating child maintenance, but we're not sure exactly what you'd like the Government or Parliament to do.
Child maintenance is based on the non-resident parent's income, and whether they are responsible for any other children: https://www.gov.uk/how-child-maintenance-is-worked-out
Non-resident parents are required to pay child maintenance whether they are in employment or not, but the amount they will be required to pay may change depending on their income.
We can accept petitions calling to changes how child maintenance rates are calculated, but it would need to be clear what changes you want to be made to these calculations.
If you are unhappy with the service you have received from the Child Maintenance Service, you should contact them directly about this: https://www.gov.uk/child-maintenance-service/complaints-and-appeals
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.