Hi all,
Any help would be most appreciated: My lad has just started University (September) so I didn't pay the 1st of Septembers maintenance, suppose to end after 'A' levels have finished, from what I've read, anyway I received a text message from Child Maintenance, on Friday, to say I have missed a payment. I called CM and after a an hour got through. Spoke to a lady to tell her that payments should have come to an end? She said no not until the 4th September, I said how is this fair, my ex earns the same as I do, my Daughter, who doesn't speak to her Mother, who I help with financially, my lad earns while at University and yet here I am paring £365.00 per month all the way through the summer and it appears September as well. I said to the lady on the lady on the phone I wasn't paying it as I didn't think I 'owed' it... she eventually cut me off for asking who was going to reimburse me if she was wrong.
Do I still owe? Surely not? I have 17 days to respond or they take it out of my wages.
Hi,
Yes September is one of the cut off dates, so according to their rules, should make final payment in September.
This video explains well.
Child maintenance is paid retrospectively, so if you were due to make a payment on 1 September, presumably that's for the period 1-31 August
Child maintenance is linked to Child Benefit, which should finish on 31 August if your son is moving onto non-approved (higher) education, i.e., university.
The date of 4 September should simply be an administrative date for the CMS to close the case based on when they are notified by HMRC. Your financial liability should cease on 31 August.
The CMS fails to accept a child has left full-time education until on or after 31 August. For context, if a child has finished college or sixth form in June or July, the CMS still considers them to be in approved, full-time education until 31 August. Their published information is misleading and in some case ambiguous, but that's what they work to.