Parents have described being driven to severe strain by their dealings with the Child Maintenance Service, amid claims from both mothers seeking payments and fathers disputing charges.
The accounts include mothers, among them a woman identified as Katy, who say they have had to fight to make former partners pay child maintenance. Their complaints centre on the difficulty of securing money they believe should be paid through the system.
At the same time, fathers have said they were wrongly charged large sums. According to the supplied accounts, some say the amounts involved ran into thousands of pounds.
The Child Maintenance Service is at the centre of the complaints from both sides of family disputes. The material highlights contrasting concerns: parents trying to obtain payments for children, and parents who say the system has incorrectly pursued them for money.
The cases point to the pressure that child maintenance disputes can place on separated parents. For those seeking support, missed or disputed payments can become a prolonged battle. For those challenging charges, the sums described are substantial.
The latest accounts leave the service facing criticism from parents who say the system has failed them in different ways, either by not ensuring payments are made or by pursuing charges they say are wrong.
