Child Maintenance & Consent Order

My ex is self employed and has not paid any child maintenance. He finally supplied accounts for our Consent Order and that is all sorted out and we are divorced. The consent order states that he is to comply with the CSA in order to pay arrears and sort out maintenance. He refuses to answer the phone them. Is it worth calling court to get advice about his non compliance? Or does anyone have any ideas how to proceed?

The courts can''t help with this, I''m afraid.

What you will need to do is be pushy with the CSA and ask them what they intend to do if he continues not responding. My case is back with criminal compliance after the ex closed down a business and started up several new ones and has refused to respond to the CSA (again). It unfortunately takes a lot of time to deal with and the CSA will faff about if you let them. I treat them as a hobby - I dip in and out of it as the mood takes me. Sometimes I phone weekly, other times I go for months without pushing. The wheels of the CSA turn very slowly so please don''t expect to get anywhere fast. It would also probably be fair to say that the legislation on child maintenance and self employment is a bit mis-matched and unless a self employed NRP wants to be co-operative and support their children, you will need to accept that things will never be what they should be.

I am sorry not to be more positive. I am in my 6th year of dealing with this and although I am currently receiving maintenance arrears on an ad-hoc basis (no on-going maintenance), this didn''t happen without massive effort on the part of the CSA closely allied to a bit of luck in terms of my ex''s circumstances.