Members of the armed forces are not treated in the same way as civilians. The CMS has no legal power to enforce maintenance deductions from the pay of anyone serving in the forces.

The CMS sends a request to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), asking for maintenance payments to be collected. The MoD then contacts the paying parent and his commanding officer.

Your ex-partner has six weeks to respond to the MoD, and during this period he is interviewed by his commanding officer, who can tell the MoD if there are any military reasons why the deductions from pay should not be made.

This can result in quite a bit of delay if, for example, the member of the forces is away for operational reasons.

And on top of this, the MoD has the right to rule that members of the forces are entitled to a 'minimum drawing rate', ensuring their net pay does not fall below a certain level, regardless of what they should be paying as maintenance.

The MoD actually has a formal agreement with the CMS that covers the way it will honour – or not – child maintenance requests.

 I have battled for nearly 18 months to get my children’s father to pay child maintenance. I still do not know each month if a payment will be made. With my ex owing £7000 no one seems to care or have any urgency to help. I have contacted my local MP and hope I can make changes to support other families with this shuffle and highlight the failings in legislation and make sure kids grow up with everything to deserve.