This petition was submitted during the 2019-2024 parliament
Rejected petition Stop allowing court orders being used to avoid child maintenance payments.
I would like the law to be changed so that if a parent doesn't comply with a court order to have their child, they must then pay child maintenance to support them.
More details
I have been told by the Child Maintenance Service that if a court order is in place the CMS must adhere to what is written in it, even if a parent doesn't have the child as per the order. This means a parent can apply for a court order to have their child, not have the child and then not pay any financial support. I would like this changed.
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 how child maintenance is calculated where there is a court order regarding child arrangements, but determining whether there is shared care is an operational decision for the Child Maintenance Service.
The Government's guidance on calculating child maintenance payments states:
"We ask both parents to give us formal, informal or spoken evidence of any agreement they have reached about shared care. We will also accept a court order setting out shared care details. If we accept that there is shared care, the weekly amount of child maintenance worked out [...] be reduced."
You can read the full guidance here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/672432/how-we-work-out-child-maintenance.pdf
If you are unhappy with a determination the Child Maintenance Service has made about shared care you can find out how to complain about this here: https://www.gov.uk/child-maintenance-service/complaints-and-appeals
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.