[Solved] Maintenance for home schooling

Hi There,
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And welcome to the forum.
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Child maintenance runs along side of Child benifits so if she is still recieving child benifits then you would still have to pay.
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That said it would depend on whether you are paying as a private agreement or you have been through either CMS or CSA if you are on a private agreement set up betweeen you and your ex with no involement of the CMS/CSA then you could stop paying and if she wanted to challenge she would have to start a fresh case with CMS, you could then challenge the home schooling but if she is claiming Child benifits it could still be hard to prove.
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If you are paying through CMS/CSA then you would need to continue paying but could ask for an investigation into the case and inform them that your son isn't being home schooled and see where it goes.
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I would think either way it would be difficult to prove that the home schooling has stopped.
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GTTS

Thanks for that, we don't go through CMS I have paid it consistently but it's starting to get out of hand, calling me saying it's her mums birthday so she needs an extra 50 etc.

Is there a way of checking is she is getting child benefit?

I suggested paying it to my son directly but she hit the roof.

Hi There,
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If you haven't been through CMS then I would contact them directly and open the case yourself, then stop paying her, I know this sounds like an odd way of doing things but one way or another it will work in your favour.
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If you open the case and give all the info you have, they will firstly check if she is recieving child benifits, if she is then you can then inform them (child benifits) that you don't believe your son is being homeschooled any more and they will hopefully look into it.
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If CMS act on the child benifits if she is recieving them, then they will set an amount for you to pay, that would be al you would pay and you aren't liable to pay anything else unless you wanted too. so in the long run that should reduce what you are paying out.
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The other option is to just call her bluff, pay the set amount that you have agreed and if she refuses to accept that's all you will pay, inform her she would need to open a case with CMS, this may scare her is she is claiming child benifits and not homeschooling your son.
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One thing to note if you do call her bluff and she contacts CMS they can only back date payments to the date that she contacted them to start the case so for instance if she contacted them today and they took 4 weeks to contact you, the payments would only go back as far as todays date, they can't go back over the past number of years that you have been paying directly.

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GTTS

Hello DD1

If you have a family-based arrangement in place, there are no set rules to follow regarding how much is paid or when the arrangement ends. It is up to the two of you to decide on that.

As mentioned previously, legally speaking child maintenance payments run in line with Child Benefit. So if your ex is still eligible for Child Benefit, maintenance payments should also still be paid.

If your ex agrees to it, there is no reason why you could not pay the maintenance directly to your son, however, if there was to be a statutory arrangement set up, the payments would have to be made to your ex.

If you would like information about the different options to set up maintenance payments and to receive a more personalised service, you can contact Child Maintenance Options directly, http://www.cmoptions.org

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have a web application, ‘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.dad.info/divorce-and-separation/sorting-out-separation

Regards

William