Hi, I pay my ex for my son an agreed amount as per a personal agreement between me and her. My son turns 19 in July finishing a 3 year mechanics course at college. She has informed me that due to his learning difficulties he will not be doing the level 3 mechanics but instead will be enrolling in college for another year to do Maths and English GCSE as he failed to attain these when he finished age 16. This will take him up to the age of 20 of which I am unsure as to whether I still need to pay her our agreed sum or not. Any information on this matter is greatly appreciated.
The CMS rules are that you need to pay for them until they are 20 if they are in full time non advanced education. I had to pay for one of mine right up to then. She just kept switching courses and didn’t really qualify as anything in the end which was annoying.
Sounds like you have a private arrangement so theoretically you could stop payment but she could then apply to CMS and those bastards are hard to get rid of. I would recommend you voluntarily keep paying. If he stops going or whatever then up to you if you stop paying. It’s much more complicated than that if the CMS are involved.
Jellybean. Many thanks for the info. I had a feeling I would have to pay and like you its annoying as the last 3 years doing mechanics has just been a waste of time. I know its my ex who is keeping him in college as she doesn't work and gets her house, benefits etc off the state and knows that I will have to pay another year.
Worth noting that full time education needs to be over 12 hours per week to qualify for child maintenance via the CMS. If it is just maths and English then it could be less than that.
That being the case you could stop paying and she wouldn’t have a case via the CMS. Obviously- don’t threaten that just now as you will probably find they just switch his course to one that qualifies.
To be honest maths and English are courses that can usually be done in night classes. As a compromise, why don’t you suggest your son does that and offer to pick up the fees instead? At least then he can go and get himself a job and start earning a few £.