A former serviceman in the Royal Navy has been threatened with a charging order by the Child Maintenance Service (CMS), despite having proven that he does not owe the money being claimed from him.
Lee Windsor’s case started in 2008 when the Child Support Agency (CSA), an agency succeeded by the CMS in 2012, initiated a case against him. The CSA mistakenly classified his Service Invaliding Pension as an occupational pension, leading to a cascade of financial difficulty for the veteran.
Despite submitting the necessary evidence, an administrative error led to him being charged over £6,000 in child maintenance overpayments for his child, who was in the custody of an estranged partner. The situation escalated following the CSA’s original refusal to rectify the overpayment despite initially acknowledging their mistake.
Speaking to The Epoch Times by email, Mr. Windsor, 42, said: “They knew I was in receipt of that pension and that I should have been paying the flat rate. All through this process of my complaint, which is way over ten years now, the CMS has been absolutely awful to me.
“They can admit to what they have done but still think they are right and that arrears are owed. I thought once they had admitted to their mistake that would have been it, little did I know that it would roll on for another ten years.”
Mr. Windsor spent seven years from 1996—2003 in the Royal Navy as an able seaman.
CMS Labelled ‘Above The Law’
Mr. Windsor added that in his opinion, the CMS “believe they are above the law” and that when he attempted to challenge the original ruling in the law courts, he was “unable to show any evidence” to properly substantiate his side of the case.Previous evidence seen by The Epoch Times suggests that the CMS could be demanding money from paying parents without due process and artificially inflating salary figures. The National Audit Office has refused to regularise the CMS’s financial statements regarding two of their historical payment schemes in any year-end report since the CMS’s inception in 2012, owing to concerns over the artificial inflation of collection figures.
Noel Willcox, a campaigner for paying parents and now a political candidate for Reform UK, criticised the amount of power the CMS wields without challenge, telling The Epoch Times: “As highlighted by the case of Mr. Windsor, when a Paying Parent enters the courtroom and tries to present evidence to prove the arrears are not owed and therefore a Liability Order should not be raised against them, the Magistrates and Justices are stopped from looking at the evidence.
“The CMS barristers use section 33(4) of the Child Support Act 1991 to stop the Magistrates from questioning the CMS’s calculations … What has happened to the separation of powers? The separation of powers is fundamental to democracy and justice as it requires that the principal institutions of the state—executive, legislature, and judiciary—should be divided in order to safeguard citizens’ liberties and guard against tyranny.”
Child Support Legislation ‘Against Natural Justice’
Mr. Willcox added: “This Child Support legislation breaches separation of power and goes against all mechanisms of natural justice, exposing tens of thousands of paying parents, like Mr. Windsor, to tyranny by the state.”The CMS eventually inflated Mr. Windsor’s alleged arrears to over £25,000. During lockdown, his arrears continued to mount, even after he informed the CMS of his employment status and a lack of earnings during the pandemic. Mr. Windsor now works as a plumber.
His case took a critical turn in 2023 when the CMS pursued a liability order for the inflated arrears via a magistrates court. Despite Mr. Windsor claiming procedural irregularities, including a hearing set far from his residence and the absence of CMS representatives at a crucial juncture in proceedings, liability orders were granted against him without proof of the updated calculations.
Mr. Windsor admitted to The Epoch Times that he has experienced depression and suicidal thoughts, exacerbated by the long drawn out nature of the process. He added that he was a “totally different person to how I used to be,” revealing, “It hasn’t just affected me but also my wife and kids, if it wasn’t for them I think I would have given up a long time ago.”
Elevated Mortality Among Paying Parents
The data, obtained via multiple Freedom of Information requests, indicate that parents in arrears have a mortality rate that is a staggering 14.28 times higher than the national average, constituting a profoundly elevated risk of death among paying parents. This group constitutes a significant 65.1 percent of all deaths within this demographic, despite representing only 12.3 percent of the total population.An overwhelming 93.1 percent of deaths surpassing the national mortality rate—referred to as excess or unexplained deaths—among paying parents occurred in individuals who were in arrears in the month leading up to their passing. According to multiple paying parents who have spoken to The Epoch Times, this trend may well illustrate the severe mental impact of CMS arrears collection.
Multiple publicised instances of suicides owing to pressure from the CMS were also raised by Debbie Abrahams, a Labour MP, at oral hearings during a meeting of the Work and Pensions Committee in January.
Speaking to a wider pattern at play, Mr. Willcox pointed to a recent National Audit Office report uncovering instances where the CMS collected money without passing it on to the receiving parent. According to Freedom of Information requests, approximately 24,500 paying parents were affected by such discrepancies.
Mr. Willcox added: “These paying parents are victims of an overbearing state and its power to take money that’s not owed. There is no justification for the level of repeated mismanagement and heavy-handed enforcement we see across the CMS. This is beyond a disgraceful level of incompetence.”
The DWP has been contacted for comment.
