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HI. My daughter left school and attended college. She was 18 last January 2014. She has now finished attending college (july 3rd term ended) and is currently waiting her results. As she now no longer attends college, I cancelled the direct debit I had set up for payments to my ex for my daughter. Was I right in doing so ? PS, my daughter spent the last 4 months living with her grandparents ( for convienence for college and I live too far away for her to stay with me) Appreciate any advice. Thanks
Hi NRG,
Was the arrangement a private one or one through CSA?
If it was a private arrangement then I can't see any issues in cancelling though I would have said it would have been good to just discuss/inform her mother you were doing this.
If it was through CSA then I would give them a call just to confirm that this is all OK, As a rule if child benefit is still being paid to the mother then you are still liable to continue to pay your maintenance.
It may just be worth a call to the CSA anyway you are fore warned with any info you may need if trouble was to arise.
GTTS
hi, thanks for the reply
it was through private agreement. I told my ex a while back that it would be cancelled when our daughter ends college, so now she is getting all uptight that payments have just stopped.
Hi nrg
Thank you for your post. I am William the Child Maintenance Options consultant. I would like to provide you with some information around the Government guidelines for when child maintenance payments should end.
As you and your daughter’s mum have a family-based arrangement in place, you can decide between yourselves when your arrangement should come to an end, as this type of arrangement is not legally-binding and there are no set rules that both of you have to follow.
However, if you wish to base your arrangement on Government guidelines, under child support legislation, regular child maintenance payments must be made until your daughter is 16 years old, or 20 if she is in full-time, non-advanced education (A-level or equivalent and is more than 12 hours a week of study), or for as long as Child Benefit is being paid. 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. You can find more information about when Child Benefit payments stop on Gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit-16-19. You can also find more information about when child maintenance payments stop on the same site at https://www.gov.uk/when-child-maintenance-payments-stop.
For more information on the ways to set up child maintenance, please visit our website at www.cmoptions.org. Alternatively, you can call us free on 0800 988 0988 between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday or 9am and 4pm on a Saturday.
Regards
William
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