Welcome to the DAD.Info forum: Important Information – open to read:
Our forum aims to provide support and guidance where it can, however we may not always have the answer. The forum is not moderated 24 hours a day, so If you – or someone you know – are being harmed or in immediate danger of being harmed, call the police on 999.
Alternatively, if you are in crisis, please call Samaritans on 116 123.
If you are worried about you or someone you know is at risk of harm, please click here: How we can help
Hi I'm looking for some help my son is 17 next month and has just started a college course called intro to construction futures as far as I'm aware there is no qualifications at the end of it so I would like to know if I still have to pay maintenance to his mother for him? We have an agreement in place instead of through the CSA any help would be appreciated.
Even though you have a private arrangement, you are allowed to call the CMS (as it's called now) to ask for advice. When I spoke to them recently, they advised as long as the child is in full time education and living at home, then maintenance is payable until age 20. If they're in full time education and live away from home, the liability ends.
If your child goes away to Uni, maybe you could consider contributing towards his living costs and paying this directly to him? 🙂
Hello tamson69
Thank you for your post. As you have a family-based arrangement in place when it comes to the length of your maintenance agreement there are no strict rules for you to follow.
It is up to you and the other parent to negotiate between yourselves, the amount, the frequency of your payments and how long they carry on for. However, legally you do still have a child maintenance requirement for your son while he is in further education.
Following the guidelines of the Government’s statutory scheme and 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.
When a child leaves full-time education in the summer, Child Benefit generally continues until the first week of September.
The definition of full-time education is more than 12 hours a week of study, on a course up to and including A level standard. Some examples of non-advanced education are:
- GCE, GCSE, A level, AS level
- SCE Higher Grade or equivalent
- GNVQ, NVQ levels 1 2 and 3
- BTEC certificates and diplomas
- SCOTVEC National Certificate
- Scottish Certificate of 6th Year Studies
- Foundation Arts Course
- Secretarial Course with GCSE entry
- NNEB
- Hairdressing Courses
If you would like to confirm any of the above you can find more information at www.gov.uk/child-maintenance.
Regards
William
Welcome to the DAD.info forum.
We don’t like to set ‘rules’, but to make sure that you and the other dads are kept safe, we have some requests. When engaging with the forum, please be aware of the following:
- The forum is not moderated 24 hours per day.
- Many of the moderators do so on a voluntary basis. Whilst they may be able to provide some guidance, advice or support, they may not be able to deal with specifics.
- We are not an emergency crisis service so if you or someone else is in immediate danger, please call emergency services.
- If you are concerned about the safety of a child, please click here to find the support you can get for them (link to new page)
- If you are in crisis, please call Samaritans on 116 123. They are open 24 hours a day, 7 days per week.
We hope you find this forum a supportive environment and thank you for joining us.