Welcome to the DAD.Info forum: Important Information – open to read:
Our forum aims to provide support and guidance where it can, however we may not always have the answer. The forum is not moderated 24 hours a day, so If you – or someone you know – are being harmed or in immediate danger of being harmed, call the police on 999.
Alternatively, if you are in crisis, please call Samaritans on 116 123.
If you are worried about you or someone you know is at risk of harm, please click here: How we can help
Hi,
I have 2 daughters one is 20 and one is 17, I have been paying child maintenance since I left 2.3 years ago. My eldest daughter is doing a full time degree and my youngest daughter is doing A levels.
I need to know at what point do I no longer need to pay maintenance for them. i.e. ages and dependent on what type of education they are doing?
Regards,
Hi there 🙂
I dont know a huge amount about the CSA but I think that you pay until the child is 16, or 20 if they are in full time non advanced education...as a degree is considered advanced you should not be paying for your oldest any longer.
As far as your youngest daughter is concerned, A levels do count as non advanced and so you will be liable for CSA for her until she reaches the age of 20, if she is still in non advanced education.
The CSA base their duty to claim on whether the resident parent is in receipt of child benefit.
You could contact Child Maintenance Options for some advice.
Hello woodsylaa
Thank you for your post. I am William, the Child Maintenance Options consultant. I understand that you pay child maintenance for your two daughters. One is 17 and studying her A-levels while your eldest daughter is 20 and is studying towards her degree. You have asked at what point your responsibility to pay child maintenance ends.
You do not mention in your post what type of child maintenance arrangement you have in place. If you have a family-based arrangement, which you and your daughters' mother have agreed the terms of together, it is up to the both of you to decide together when your payments will stop. A family-based arrangement is not legally binding but it is flexible to meet the needs of parents, or the children, if their circumstances change. However, when parents can not reach an agreement some choose to follow the guidelines set out by the Child Support Agency (CSA), which is the Government's statutory maintenance service.
The CSA state that child maintenance must be paid by the paying parent to the receiving parent until the child turns 16 or until they reach 20 if they are in full-time, non-advanced education (not higher than A-level 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. Also, anyone aged 16 or 17 who is not in education, is not working and does not receive employment related benefits, is also defined as a child.
If you do have a case with the CSA, you may wish to confirm this information with them. You can find the CSA's contact details on any letter that they have sent to you or on their website, along with further information about when child maintenance ends, at http://www2.dwp.gov.uk/csa/v2/en/contact/index.asp.
If you have a Consent Order in place, which is an arrangement made through the courts, you will need to seek legal advice. You may like to contact a solicitor or Civil Legal Advice (CLA) may be able to help you. CLA is a Government funded confidential legal service offering free advice to those eligible for Legal Aid in England and Wales, their website is http://www.gov.uk/civil-legal-advice.
To find out more about how Child Maintenance Options can help, or for information on all the options available to put in place a child maintenance arrangement, including online tools and forms to help with family-based arrangements, you can visit our website at http://cmoptions.org. If you would prefer a friendly and confidential chat, please call us on 0800 988 0988 (free from a landline).
We also have a sorting out separation web-app, it aims to make it much easier for separated parents to find the support they need, when and where they need it, and encourages parents to collaborate on a range of issues. The link is: http://www.dad.info/divorce-and-separation/sorting-out-separation
Hope this helps.
Welcome to the DAD.info forum.
We don’t like to set ‘rules’, but to make sure that you and the other dads are kept safe, we have some requests. When engaging with the forum, please be aware of the following:
- The forum is not moderated 24 hours per day.
- Many of the moderators do so on a voluntary basis. Whilst they may be able to provide some guidance, advice or support, they may not be able to deal with specifics.
- We are not an emergency crisis service so if you or someone else is in immediate danger, please call emergency services.
- If you are concerned about the safety of a child, please click here to find the support you can get for them (link to new page)
- If you are in crisis, please call Samaritans on 116 123. They are open 24 hours a day, 7 days per week.
We hope you find this forum a supportive environment and thank you for joining us.