That makes no sense at all when the Gov site stipulate its classed as an expense, and sure someone here had success in having the CMS return a £0 owed to the claimant
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first contact with CMS
- Thread starter Dirge
- Start date
Well, I sure hope you can claim it as an expense, as I'm in the same boat as you capa. I had my first notification letter from CMS last Friday and I've got 14 days to contact them - going to ring them tomorrow and I will raise the issue of mortgages. from what others have said about CMS, I might have a fight on my hands with them. Will let you know how I get on. I'm going to try to register my mortgage on the CMS portal as Resolute suggested too. Would be great to hear from anyone who has done this already.
Please do and would be appreciated, the only saving grace ive got is if CMS happens for me, house is going up for sale, ill pay her her CMS, but with the lump sum she will lose her UC until money is 10K or below and she wont get anywhere off council anytime soon as she made herself intentionally homeless by not accepting the offer of, i pay mortgage you leave CMS out of it
I have just phoned the CMS for the first time. I asked about informal child care arrangements, and the operator said if my wife confirms the number of nights the children stay with me, then they will be taken into account. So, in my case this means a 3/7 reduction since I have my girls every week for 3 nights. I see two problems with that; If wifey gets a sniff of the fact it will reduce her payments, she will either lie and deny I have them 3 nights, or worse, stop me seeing them. Secondly, all information I gave on the phone today is being passed onto a caseworker, who makes the decision on what CM I pay. So what the operator told me today might not be agreed by this caseworker.
I also asked about claiming my mortgage payments as an expense. I told operator the mortgage and property were in my sole name and he told me this would be an allowable expense. Operator is going to send me a "variation" form in the post, I complete it and upload it to my CMS platform.
Again, there's the possibility that what I was told today will not be agreed by the caseworker, so trying not to get my hopes up. Apparently there is a 4 - 6 week wait now before the caseworker informs me of what CM payment I am liable for - will keep you posted.
I also asked about claiming my mortgage payments as an expense. I told operator the mortgage and property were in my sole name and he told me this would be an allowable expense. Operator is going to send me a "variation" form in the post, I complete it and upload it to my CMS platform.
Again, there's the possibility that what I was told today will not be agreed by the caseworker, so trying not to get my hopes up. Apparently there is a 4 - 6 week wait now before the caseworker informs me of what CM payment I am liable for - will keep you posted.
update. The CMS did not wait for me to receive a variation form and up load it. Instead they immediately calculated what I had to pay and a payment schedule, which I received in the post 3 days after my first phone call. Needless to say, a week after my first phone call, I still have not been sent a variation form. The good news is that the payment calculated appears to have taken into account me having my children 3 nights a week. So either they have accepted what I told them to be true, or, more likely, the wife has confirmed, to my surprise, that the children are with me 3 nights a week.
The bad news is, they have not taken into account any mortgage payments. I chased this up yesterday with CMS and requested a mandatory reconsideration on the grounds that they have not taken into account the mortgage payments I told them about last week. I was told that I would need to wait for the variation form, and it would take 6 months to be processed. It is blatantly unfair to demand payment immediately, yet make the paying parent wait 6 months to challenge a decision. The operator also refused to start a mandatory reconsideration as she was in the "triage" department and I had to speak to a caseworker.
So, just spent an hour and a half on the phone again and spoke with a caseworker. He told me I could upload mortgage information without uploading a variation form, but get this, any special expenses, such as mortgage payments are only taken off your Gross income figure, not directly offset from the calculated maintenance payment. In other words, CMS will only allow 16%, (for 2 children, 12% for 1 child), of agreed special expenses to be taken off what you are paying. I was also told you cannot request a mandatory reconsideration for a variation to be taken into account until after they have processed it - a 6 month delay. Is this right - has any one successfully made a variation claim?
The bad news is, they have not taken into account any mortgage payments. I chased this up yesterday with CMS and requested a mandatory reconsideration on the grounds that they have not taken into account the mortgage payments I told them about last week. I was told that I would need to wait for the variation form, and it would take 6 months to be processed. It is blatantly unfair to demand payment immediately, yet make the paying parent wait 6 months to challenge a decision. The operator also refused to start a mandatory reconsideration as she was in the "triage" department and I had to speak to a caseworker.
So, just spent an hour and a half on the phone again and spoke with a caseworker. He told me I could upload mortgage information without uploading a variation form, but get this, any special expenses, such as mortgage payments are only taken off your Gross income figure, not directly offset from the calculated maintenance payment. In other words, CMS will only allow 16%, (for 2 children, 12% for 1 child), of agreed special expenses to be taken off what you are paying. I was also told you cannot request a mandatory reconsideration for a variation to be taken into account until after they have processed it - a 6 month delay. Is this right - has any one successfully made a variation claim?
This is what all the complaints about. They make you pay now, even when the calculation is wrong or unfair, and it can take months to sort out. It sounds like they've done the base calculation and any mortgage claim has to be done separately. I should get that variation form uploaded asap. Then maybe chase them in a month's time if you haven't heard anything.
From the wording of all the bumph CMS have sent, I take it to mean if you are paying a mortgage on a property that you all lived in, but now only the ex and child(ren) live in, and is owned by the ex, maybe because it became hers through a financial settlement, then that can be claimed as a special expense. A very narrow set of circumstances I.M.O. - I'm keeping my fingers crossed about getting 50/50!