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My daughter is 16 years old, left school & from what I've been told by various people she's now working in a beauty salon as an apprentice.
I've been paying £200 a month for the last 5 years, I've not seen my daughter for 3 years due to her mum refusing me access. According to csa calculator I should be giving her £37 a week.
I wrote to the mum asking for proof of my daughter staying in education to be able to carry on paying til she's 18 at least. She's refused to send me what we asked for so September, October & soon to be November's payments are sat in a separate bank account waiting for her.
I've had a letter saying if I don't agree to pay her £400 a month she'll tell csa she's got 2 children & is claiming my income is much higher than it is.
I'm more than happy to go through csa, it's so much easier for me & have been asking for her bank details for years but she refused to give them so I have had to have other people put cash through her letterbox - I don't live near her.
I'm currently on sick due to 2 breaks in my ankle, I'm just about to start week 3 off work but from week 4 I'll be on SSP so my payments will drop for a while.
How do I get csa to realise there is only 1 child & put my income correct? Can she claim for a child that doesn't exist?
Hi there
If you are happy to go through the CMS, there’s nothing to stop you from opening a case yourself.
They wouldn’t just take her word on the number of children and would look to see if she is claiming child benefit.
If you open the case, you can supply them with details of your income.
All the best
Hello WHATSGOINGON
Under child support legislation, regular child maintenance payments must be made until a child is 16 years old, or 20 if they are in full-time, non-advanced education (A-level or equivalent), or for as long as Child Benefit is being paid.
Generally, child maintenance is required to be paid for a child while the receiving parent, your daughter's mum, is still in receipt of the Child Benefit. When a child leaves full-time education in the summer, Child Benefit generally continues until the first week of September. You can find out more about your daughter's eligibility for this benefit now she has started her apprenticeship on the Government website at https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit/eligibility.
As you currently do have a family-based arrangement in place with your daughter's mum, it really is up to both of you to decide when your payments should come to an end.
Many parents do now choose to sort out their maintenance between themselves as it can be the quickest and easiest way of setting up a maintenance agreement. As the agreement is just between the two of you, there are no strict rules for you to follow. Although family-based arrangements are not legally binding, they are very flexible and can be easily changed.
Child maintenance is calculated using your gross income, therefore, if you do have a change in income your maintenance payments should reflect this. Child Maintenance Options is an information service designed to help parents with information about all their options and help maintain an existing family-based arrangement.
They do have some supporting tools on their website at https://www.cmoptions.org that might help you both come to an agreement. Their Talking About Money Guide and Discussion Guide are full of information about how you can plan your conversation with your daughter's mum and how to negotiate your agreement. They also point out the financial costs involved in raising a child and can give you both new ideas about what can be included in your agreement.
It does sound like you have already used their Online Calculator which is available to calculate an amount of maintenance that the Government consider a reasonable payment.
If you have not done so already, you can record your agreement on their Family-based Arrangement Form. Although it is not a legally binding document it can put your agreement on a more formal basis. You can also agree a renewal date for your agreement in case either of you, or your daughter, have a change in circumstances in the future.
If you find that you are unable to renegotiate your family-based arrangement, you do have the option of making an application with the Child Maintenance Service. If you do still have a requirement to provide maintenance for your daughter, they can calculate your child maintenance, then leave you to arrange payments between yourselves.
In the event you decide to ask the Child Maintenance Service to arrange your child maintenance for you in the future, your responsibility to pay will start from around the point that they contact your daughter’s mum, not from when you first make your application.
For further information about putting in place a statutory arrangement and the fees involved with this, you will need to contact Child Maintenance Options directly and you can find all their contact details on their website.
You may also be interested to know the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have a website, 'Sorting out Separation'. It aims to make it much easier for separating and separated parents (and childless couples) to find the support they need, when and where they need it, and encourages them to collaborate on a range of issues. The link is http://www.sortingoutseparation.org.uk/
For more information and for a more personalised service, you may wish to visit the Child Maintenance Options website yourself.
Regards
William
Sorry, I didn't pick up on the fact that she'd left education. CM should stop and so should your liability. I would definitely enter discussions with her about withdrawing payments.... perhaps with a months grace to allow her to sort her finances.
All the best
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