I paid £20,000 child support for a kid that was not mine
LIFE RUINED OVER FALSE CLAIM Firefighter loses home and car in cash fight with CMS
A FIREFIGHTER has told how his life was destroyed by a seven-year child maintenance battle over a baby that wasn’t his.
James Simpson, from Peterhead, said he was left homeless and in severe debt after £20,000 was taken from his wages during a long-running dispute over a false paternity claim.
The dad of one is still fighting for his money to be returned – three years after a DNA test proved the child wasn’t his.
The 32-year-old said he now wants to highlight “sexist” injustices in the Governmentrun Child Maintenance Service (CMS) system, which he claims puts the onus on the male to disprove false claims at their own cost.
James said: “They ruined my life. I went from being nearly ready to buy a house to now not being able to get a contract phone.
“I was taking out loans that I knew I was going to struggle to pay back and defaulted on them, which ruined my credit rating.
“I’ve got no hope of getting a mortgage now, my life savings are gone and I’ve got a phone in my partner’s name because I can’t get one in my own.
“I’ve been trying for years to get my money back but they just don’t seem to care.”
James was contacted by the CMS in 2014 and told a woman had named him as the father of her baby daughter.
He agreed to a DNA test but refused to pay the cost himself, which was several hundred pounds.
He said: “From the very first phone call, I told them there was no chance I could be the dad.
“I never had sex with the mother so it was impossible but they kept contacting me.
“I never refused to do a DNA test, I refused to pay the cost because I knew 100 per cent I was not the father.”
James said he was offered no help paying for the test because he was employed.
He moved house and became a dad to a baby boy but a week after his son was born in 2015, he received a wage slip with more than £700 deducted.
It was the first of dozens of crippling monthly payments that would continue for three years until 2018.
He said: “CMS told me I never took a DNA test, so they assumed parentage.
“I got evicted because I couldn’t afford to pay the rent and I lost my car because I couldn’t afford the finance.
“I was left with about £500 a month to try and pay rent and all my bills with a new child.”
James was given a promotion in 2018 and found the extra cash to pay for the DNA test, which confirmed he was not the dad.
But CMS do not automatically reimburse all child maintenance, they only consider reimbursement from the date evidence was provided to disprove paternity.
James has been arguing his case through the CMS’s complaints procedure, prompting a review and an investigation by the Independent Case Examiner, but the matter has now been closed.
He has contacted Tory MP David Duguid and referred his case to the ombudsman.
A DWP spokesperson said: “Between 2014 and 2016, the Child Maintenance Service offered Mr Simpson DNA testing on five separate occasions to help settle this dispute.
“The CMS can help pay for the test if someone is unable to afford it and if it shows someone is not the parent, they are reimbursed the cost of the test. However, Mr Simpson did not take a test until March 2018.”