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After paying maintenance to my ex for 10 years, I stopped when my son left school. My ex then promptly kicked him out and he's now living with me.
Now that he's away from her abusive husband (emotional not physical) he wants to go back to school in August and sit his highers.
my question is: when can I apply for child benefit and child maintenance for him? Do I have to wait till he starts school in August or can I apply as soon as he's signed up to go back?
Thanks for any feedback.
Not sure about that - you could speak to the benefits office for advice, or you could simply apply and see what they say. As soon as you get conformation that child benefit will be paid, I'd open a case with the CMS for maintenance.
Hello Andyj56
You may wish to speak to HM Revenue and Customs to see when you can make an application for Child Benefit, I have included their contact details below:
HM Revenue and Customs - Child Benefit
Telephone Number: 0300 200 3100
Opening hours: 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday 8am to 4pm Sat
Website: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk
I have also included a link to the Gov.uk website that provides information on the eligibility for Child Benefit that you may find helpful, https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit/eligibility.
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. Before 10 December 2012, the upper age limit was 19.
However, if your child was 19 after this date and in full-time education, maintenance would be paid until the age of 20. In addition, if arrears have built up on a case, those arrears must still be paid, even if regular child maintenance payments have stopped.
When a child leaves full-time education in the summer, Child Benefit generally continues until the first week of September. The following link provides further information on what courses are classed as full-time non-advanced education that you may find useful, https://www.gov.uk/when-child-maintenance-payments-stop.
There are various ways that child maintenance can be arranged, there is a family-based arrangement which is a non-legally enforceable arrangement agreed between parents without the intervention/ involvement of the Government or legal system. The Child Maintenance Service is the Government statutory maintenance service who can calculate maintenance leaving parents to arrange payment between themselves, or collect payments and pay to the parent/ main carer. There is also a Consent Order/ Minute of Agreement which is an arrangement through the courts.
For more information on the different ways to set up child maintenance and for a more personalised service, you can visit the Child Maintenance Options website at http://www.cmoptions.org.
The DWP have a sorting out separation web-app that you may find useful. It offers help and support to separating and separated families. The link is: www.dad.info/divorce-and-separation/sorting-out-separation.
Regards
William
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