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I have 3 children and have had the same question for over 5 years. It has never been successfully answered.
The Child Support Agency (CSA) guidelines state that child maintenance is generally still paid while the child's resident parent is still in receipt of Child Benefit payments and is aged under 16, or under 20 and in full-time non-advanced education. Which appears straight forward enough.
What is not clear is how the non-resident Parent can find out if their child is still in education or the child's resident parent is still receiving Child Benefit when the resident parent refuses to have contact and does not allow the children to have contact.
On approaching the Child Benefit Office, they have told me that they cannot release such information. The CSA have said that I must continue to pay maintenance until Child Benefit ceases but they will not intervene with Child Benefit and the schools will not give attendance information to non-resident parents.
I have no idea if my last remaining child receiving maintenance is in education or not. I did find out that I overpaid for my middle child for a number of years because the resident parent 'forgot' to tell CSA of a change of circumstances. I am concerned that, as the non-resident parent, without contact with my children, I do not know what the current position is and cannot find out from the authorities.
Any advice?
Therein lies the conundrum...I would strongly advise you to go and see your MP because neither CSA or the Child Benefit Office will provide any solution for this merry go round!
Best of luck
Nannyjane thank you - you are quite right - a conundrum indeed!!
Even approaching the Child Benefit Office with evidence of potential fraud did not help, even though it was found to be correct no action was taken.
This is a conundrum even my MP seemed unable to resolve. He was excellent value and really brought a resolution to other issues but not this one.
If I stop paying because I believe my son is not in full time education, the CSA will be only too quick to take action - not to investigate the case but just make me pay - saying if the resident parent receives Child Benefit, it is up to the CSA to ensure payment is made.
I would say this is more than a conundrum and in the words of Gwendolen in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest this situation is more a '........ metaphysical speculation, and like most metaphysical speculations has very little reference at all to the actual facts of real life, as we know them.”
Hello to all I am new to your forum hope you are all well, i have a question about csa which is very close to this topic thread.
Quick intro I have paid csa on the old system for the last 17 years or so and in that time not had any contact with my child or his mother even though I got a parental responsibility order( not worth the the paper it was printed on),and I know how frustrating it can be to deal with the csa and effectively used as a cash cow by my ex and the csa.I now have found out that my child has gone to uni (he is 18.5)so i contacted csa and asked them to check child benefit which they did and told me it had stopped great I thought so I said what does this mean to csa payments i asked oh that is it now we will close the case,great me thinks but a couple of weeks go by and I dont hear anything so i contact csa again who now tell me that they have to speak to the childs mother first to find out what he is doing.Hang on i said child maintenance has stopped so surely csa does,not true says csa he could be still entitled to csa depending on what education he is doing ,nowhere can i find this in the rules it clearly says once child maintenance stops then so does csa.I have put this to them again and they say they that they have contacted the childs mother to find out what he is doing in education but she does not know the course he is doing now the csa are leaving her voicemail which she does not respond to obviously trying to dodge them so i have to keep paying.Sorry for the rant but any advice would be most welcome.
Thanks
If your son is in Uni that is classed as advanced education and CSA is not payable in that circumstance.
Try your MP, it's a pity gkbswiss didn't get a result from his MP but that's not to say you won't! It's worth a try anyway.
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