My daugher is 29+ weeks pregant and is 17. She is/was in full time college but I have been told that she has claimed the £500 sure start benefit. Her Mum (my ex) is a single parent and has 2 other younger children by another partner. I am not questioning anything at the moment, but how does this affect the Child Maintenance Payments to my ex? I know that I have to pay it for as long as the Mother is claiming child benefit for my daughter, but I am not comfortable asking her what is happening as she can be quite difficult but I don't want to be in a position where she is taking advantage by not actually informing me what is going on?
As far as I am aware, it depends on whether your daughter remains in education or not. Are you paying through CMS? If not, you could wait until the baby is born and then stop the payments, in which case, your ex would then have to apply to CMS, and she'd have to give evidence that she is still in receipt of child benefit.
She's 17 years old then technically you can stop paying child maintenance - I think it's up until 16 years of age. UNLESS she is attending college full time (A levels, highers or equivalent) then you can stop paying when she turns 20. I'm sure now that she's pregnant you'll both need to work out a way to pay for all of her medical expenses (baby items, health ) hospital bills) Do you and your ex share the maintenance? Because that also effects the child maintenance costs. Meaning that the amount decreases depending on whether or not the child spends most of the time with the paying parent or not.
Are you paying for the other children from your ex's other relationships? There are percentages of payment for those and I guess you'd need to ask the Child Maintenance Services for the exact number.
Congrats on becoming a grandfather!