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Hi Everyone
Can anyone please clarify the following for me. My daughter is planning to go to University (not until September 2016). She will be 19 in December 2016. She will be doing a degree course in Medicine. Her mother has kindly presented me a breakdown of all the fees I will be expected to pay!! I obviously want to support my daughter directly but I also believe her mother thinks the CSA will continue in addition to this. My understanding is that the CSA will end when she reaches 19. Is this correct, or is it 20? I'm also wondering if it would end in the September before she is 19 when she actually goes off to Uni. If it continues until her 19th birthday can I make the payments from September to December direct to my daughter instead of her mother? I've been considering ringing the CSA to get the facts straight but to be honest I have found them totally useless over the years and on many occasions have gotten things wrong on my case and I've had to fight to prove them wrong!
Thanks
Chris
Hi and welcome
Child maintenance liability continues until the child leaves non advanced education, and a University Degree is most definitely advanced education, so your liability ends (usually last payment will be September of the year she finishes non-advanced education). This means that from Sept 2016 onwards (assuming she gets the grades she needs and doesn't need to re-sit), you no longer need to pay you ex, and you can pay money to your daughter if you wish to.
Hello Chris
Under child support legislation, regular child maintenance payments must be made until a child is 16 years old, or 20 if they are in full-time, non-advanced education (A-level or equivalent), or for as long as Child Benefit is being paid. When a child leaves full-time education in the summer, Child Benefit generally continues until the first week of September.
A degree is considered as advanced or higher education, so your daughter would no longer qualify for child maintenance through the statutory service when she starts university in September 2016.
If you choose to still contribute directly to your daughter when she goes to university, this would be completely voluntary on your part.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have a web application, ‘Sorting out separation’. It aims to make it much easier for separating and separated parents (and childless couples) to find the support they need, when and where they need it, and encourages them to collaborate on a range of issues. The link is http://www.dad.info/divorce-and-separation/sorting-out-separation.
Regards
William
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