[Solved] historic claims

Child maintenance is only payable from the day that a claim is opened with the CSA. If she didnt open a claim then you will not be liable, if she did open a claim you would likely have received a letter from the CSA....very occasionally the paying parent is asked for large sums of arrears even though they didnt receive notification of a claim being opened.

No his over the age of making a claim now

That's excellent that you are both wanting to pick up the relationship. We'd be really interested to know how it goes, and might also be encouraging for other dads on here who are worried that they will lose all contact forever with their children where their ex's are preventing contact.

Aw, thanks. It's been an emotional rollercoaster and the ride, I hope, is just beginning. It's early days and we've only been talking online, but we get on well. We' re both professional writers, which is either a massive coincidence or a triumph of DNA.

The ramifications are huge for everyone, not just us but both our respective families. I'd be honored to post updates. I'm sure there will set backs but the fact that I've finally plucked up the courage, after 24 years of pain and loss, and that it's gone well so far, it's a big thing for me.

We have a blog section if you feel that you want to keep a running diary on here 🙂

Hi Charlie

Thank you for your post. I am William the Child Maintenance Options consultant. I will provide some information that may help answer your query.

In certain circumstances, the statutory child maintenance service can backdate child maintenance if there is an existing case in place and for example, payments have been missed. In general, a paying parent’s responsibility to pay will start from around the point when they are contacted by the statutory child maintenance service. If you believe that an application was previous made to the Child Support Agency (CSA), you may wish to contact them directly for further clarification. You can find the CSA’s contact details on Gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/child-support-agency.

If child maintenance was previously set up via the courts, in the form of a Consent Order, or Minute of Agreement, you may wish to seek legal advice for guidance to your query.

You may also wish to know that under the current statutory rules, 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. When a child leaves full-time education in the summer, Child Benefit generally continues until the first week of September. You can find more information on the statutory rules on when child maintenance stops on Gov.uk 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 http://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