A maths teacher has described how he 'couldn't stop shaking' after discovering that nearly £20,000 had been taken from his bank account due to a child maintenance error. John Hammond, 56, from Peterborough, had the sum deducted by the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) despite his arrangement having ended over a decade ago.
Details of the error
Mr Hammond, whose children were 25 and 28 at the time, initially thought the deduction was a scam. He had received a letter in 2002 from the Child Support Agency, the predecessor of the CMS, stating he owed £947. However, the letter confirmed he would not have to pay this amount at his ex-wife's request. Then, in 2019, he received a letter from the CMS claiming he owed nearly £19,000.
In December 2020, £19,269 was taken from his bank account. After disputing the arrears, he won an appeal in court, and the full sum was ordered to be repaid. The court also awarded him £8,000 in legal costs, but since he had spent £14,055 on legal fees, he remains more than £6,000 out of pocket.
Other affected parents
The BBC has reported that over 30 parents have experienced similar issues, including miscalculated child maintenance arrears, wrongful deductions, and lengthy court battles with the CMS. Richard George, 63, had £18,800 taken from his bank by the CMS in late 2019, despite winning an appeal in 2016 to write off over £16,000 in arrears. He later discovered that the CMS had been sending letters to a wrong address for several years.
Mr George said: 'They paid the money back in the end - everything taken since 2019, including the collection fees... but by then the damage had already been done.'
CMS statistics and response
In 2025, the CMS received 92,700 requests from parents to reconsider a decision. Of these, 21,400 were found to be incorrect or were changed after the parent provided more information. The CMS is run by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
A DWP spokesperson stated: 'The Child Maintenance Service sets payment arrangements based on a paying parent’s income and assessment accuracy rates are consistently close to 100%. If parents dispute a payment arrangement decision it can be appealed, and an independent tribunal will decide if it should be changed. Should the paying parent fall into arrears, CMS will first attempt to arrange voluntary payments and restart regular payments to avoid further arrears. Enforcement measures are only taken if parents continue not to pay.'
