[Solved] Should I still be paying or not ?

Hi there

Is the level 4 an NVQ?

As far as the mother leaving to live in Edinburgh, as she is still paying the household bills this might be a grey area.

Here's some info that I've copied and pasted from a previous post of Williams, our child Maintenace expert.

....I am William the Child Maintenance Options consultant. I understand that you would like to know what courses are classed as further education.

Under the 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.

Education must be full-time (more than an average of 12 hours’ supervised study a week during term time) and ‘non-advanced’. This includes:

GCSEs
A levels
iGCSEs
Pre-U
International Baccalaureate
NVQ/SVQ level 1, 2 or 3
BTEC National Diploma, National Certificate and First Diploma
SCE higher grade or similar

It does not include ‘advanced’ education, eg:

A degree
Diploma of Higher Education
NVQ level 4 or above
BTEC Higher National Certificate (HNC)
Teacher training

...hope this helps, perhaps you should write to her formally and state that as she is no longer living with your son then as far as you are aware she isn't eligible for Child Benefit and Child Maintenace. Say that you are more than happy to pay your son directly to assist him financially but if she persists in not agreeing to this you will contact the relevant agencies to update the information that she is no longer living in the familty home and claiming benefits in that instance could be fraudulent.

Hello Andersin

If you have a family-based arrangement in place with, you may wish to try to discuss and negotiate when your payments would end with the other parent. Although family-based arrangements are not legally enforceable, parents can decide the terms of their agreement to suit their current circumstances, as there are no strict rules or formulas to follow. It can include money and other kinds of support, for example providing, clothes, paying for mobile phone bills.

The Child Maintenance Options website has a useful tools and guides section that you and the other parent may find helpful when trying to negotiate your family-based arrangement. This can be found at http://www.cmoptions.org.

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. When a child leaves full-time education in the summer, Child Benefit generally continues until the first week of September.

You may find following link useful that provides further information on when maintenance ends, https://www.gov.uk/when-child-maintenance-payments-stop.

If you have a case with the Government’s statutory scheme you may wish to contact them directly to discuss your concerns. You will find their details on any letters they have sent you or on Gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/child-maintenance.

If you have a Consent Order/Minute of Agreement in place you may wish to see what is stipulated within your agreement as to where you stand regarding your payments. Alternatively, you may want to seek legal advice.

For more information on all 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

Thank you very much

Ok so just been told he's on a level 4 NC engineering course , is this classed as further education or not ??

I think you will have to contact the education provider to check if it is non advanced or not. as the level 4 could apply to different qualifications.