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Hello all, first post...
I have a court based family arrangement with my ex-wife and have been paying CM since this came into being a few years ago. My son is 17 now and started FE college in September. He started to have behavioural difficulties in October and in November dropped below the threshold of 12 hours. I stopped the payments to my ex-wife from December and instead have been saving the money in an account for my son.
It looks like he will now increase his hours to more than 12 after February.
Do I have to return to the previous arrangement? As I have a court based family arrangement should I try to negotiate something with my ex-wife?
What's the situation with starting it up again? I assume that this should be the case as my boy is will be increasing his hours to more than 12 hours, which means the entitlement comes back into play?
I think potentially, your ex could apply - if you work out what you should pay under that, and put it into a savings account, then you'll be ready if she does. Having said that, it is worth you paying the £20 application fee and opening a case yourself - that way you have more control over closing the case. Your ex would have to provide evidence that she's entitled (child benefit is usually enough).