Frequently asked questions

UK parents with a Child Maintenance Service case – whether you pay or receive maintenance. It's your own private record: the other parent doesn't need the app, and can't see anything in it.

No. CDA is an independent app and isn't connected to CMS or the government. For your official case, use your CMS online account or contact CMS directly. Our support team can help with the app, but not with your case.

Coming soon – CDA is on Android now and is with Apple for review. Join the iPhone waiting list and we'll email you once when it's available.

Yes. If you have CMS arrangements with more than one other parent, tap the small coloured square at the top of any screen and choose Add a case. Each case has its own colour and the other parent's initials, and keeps its own nights, payments, calls, letters, calendar and documents. Your name, address and signature are shared. Exports and the CMS dispute pack only ever include the case that's open, and a backup saves all your cases together.

In Case Manager, tap CMS dispute pack. Choose a period (for example the 12 months your CMS decision covers), tick the records and documents to include and add a short statement if you like. CDA makes one PDF with a front page, a numbered index and every page numbered, ready to email or upload to CMS or a tribunal. Photos and PDFs become pages; other file types are listed in the index so you can send them separately.

The CMS calculator, all the CMS guidance and the Support pages (where to get help) are free, always – no plan or trial needed. Keeping your records, letters, the case timeline and the CMS dispute pack need a monthly (£4.99) or yearly (£29.99) plan, with a 7-day free trial.

When you first open CDA, choose the monthly or yearly plan and confirm with Google Play, which takes your payment details. You get 7 days of every feature free. If you don't cancel at least 24 hours before the 7 days end, the plan you chose starts and you're charged.

No. There are no ads in CDA, ever, and nothing extra to buy. A monthly or yearly plan unlocks every feature – no add-ons, no upsells, no "premium" extras.

In CDA, go to Settings → Subscription → Change or cancel. Or open Google Play → your profile picture → Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions → CDA → Cancel, or go to play.google.com/store/account/subscriptions. Cancel at least 24 hours before the renewal date. You keep access until the end of the period you've paid for.

Nothing is deleted. Your records stay on your phone, and you can still back them up and export them from Settings. The calculator, guidance and Support pages stay free. To open your case pages and add or edit entries again, start a plan.

No. Everything is stored only on your phone, and nothing is ever sent to us. Nothing leaves your phone unless you export, share or back it up yourself – including the optional Google Drive backup, which is encrypted on your phone before it's uploaded to your own Drive.

The one lookup CDA makes is Find my MP: only when you tap it, CDA sends your postcode – nothing else – to UK Parliament's public website to find your MP's name and email. See our privacy policy.

If Google Drive backup is on: install CDA on the new phone. The first screen asks Already use CDA on another phone or tablet? – tap Google Drive, then Restore from Google Drive, sign in to the same Google account and enter your backup password.

Using a backup file: on your old phone, go to Settings → Backup & Restore → Create backup, choose a password and save the file somewhere you can reach from the new phone, such as Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox or your email. Install CDA on the new phone, tap Backup file on the first screen, then Restore from backup file, pick the file and enter the password.

Either way, all your cases, records and documents come back. If you've already started using CDA on the new phone, you can restore any time from Settings → Backup & Restore – restoring replaces what's on that phone.

On Android, it's optional and off until you turn it on in Settings → Backup & Restore → Google Drive. Choose daily, weekly or monthly, a visible folder or a hidden app folder, how many backups to keep, whether to include documents and whether to wait for Wi-Fi. Each backup is encrypted on your phone with your backup password before it's uploaded, so Google can't read it, and we never receive it. CDA can only see the backup files it made, not the rest of your Drive.

Want it somewhere else? Move or rename the backup folder in the Google Drive app – CDA will keep saving to it.

We're sorry – backups are encrypted so that only you can open them, and the password is never sent to us, so it can't be recovered. Make a new backup from the phone that still has your records.

CMS works out shared care by the number of nights a child stays overnight with the paying parent, so that's what CDA counts.

It follows the published CMS rates and shared-care bands. You can use the nights from your Childcare log or enter your usual pattern per week, fortnight or year. It can't cover every case – for example variations or children in more than one CMS case. Use it as a check against your CMS decision letter.

CMS always works out maintenance as a weekly amount, but monthly payments are spread over the whole year – roughly the weekly amount × 52 ÷ 12. So £93.22 a week is about £404 a month, not £372.88 (four weeks).

Your payment plan can also differ because the amount shown includes any arrears due, the first payment covers a part period, or CMS has marked a month to skip. "Total amount you should have paid since…" is a running total, not extra money owed. The simple rule: pay exactly what each plan says, on the date it says. In CDA, see CMS Guidance → Reading your payment schedule.

For example, hiding income, or claiming for a child who doesn't live with them. In CDA, go to CMS Guidance → Reporting fraud or wrong information for what CMS can act on and what evidence helps. Then use Letters → Report to put it in writing. Reports to CMS can't be anonymous, but you can ask CMS not to share your details with the other parent. Stick to facts you can show.

In Letters, choose Complaint and pick the stage you're at: 1. To CMS, 2. Ask for a review if you're not happy with CMS's reply, 3. To ICE (the Independent Case Examiner) once CMS has sent its final response – within 6 months of it – and 4. Your MP if you're still not happy, who can refer it to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. CMS Guidance → Complaints explains each step and time limit.

For ICE letters, Email to ICE opens your own email app with the letter filled in, and can attach the signed PDF and documents from Case Manager. For MP letters, Find my MP looks up your MP from your postcode and adds their name to the letter. Letters to CMS go by post or your CMS online account – CMS doesn't take complaints by email. In Northern Ireland, check with NIPSO about the final stage.

The CMS case number is the main number on your CMS letters and the one CMS asks for. "Other reference" is optional – use it for anything extra, such as a complaint reference. Both belong to the case, so each case can have its own.

Check Settings → Notifications in CDA, then make sure notifications are allowed for CDA in your phone's settings. Some phones' battery savers block reminders – set CDA to "unrestricted" battery use.