[Solved] Unusual Case?

Hi and welcome,

I would call the CSA (if they manage your case) they will be able to advise on this, as you say it's an unusual one so not come across it before.

If you have a private arrangement then I would have a chat with CSA/CMS anyway to see how they would treat the case and then discuss it with her mother to see what you can arrange.

GTTS

Thanks for the info and I thought I'd post what happened here to give anyone else in the same situation a "heads up".

I called the CSA and the adviser wasn't 100% sure about my case so I rang the Child Benefit line from his recommendation. It turns out that if my daughter satrts claiming benefits (child benefit and child tax credits) in her own right once her baby is born, I wouldn't have to pay maintenance to her mum even though my daughter would still be in full-time non-advanced education. However, if my daughter's mum claims those benefits on my daughter's behalf, I would still have to pay.

Unfortunately for you, chances are your ex will get the same advice.

Thank you for coming back to post what you found out 🙂

I thought the same as you but I don't actually pay through the CSA. I just wanted to know when my payments would theoretically stop to give me an idea when I might think about stopping private payments.

Hi Kula

Thank you for your post. I am William the Child Maintenance Options consultant. I will provide some information that may help answer your query.

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. You can find more information about when child maintenance stops on Gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/when-child-maintenance-payments-stop. You can also find more information on a parent’s eligibility to receive Child Benefit on the same site at https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit/overview.

However, if you and your daughter’s mother have agreed child maintenance privately via a family-based arrangement, there are no strict rules to stick to. Therefore, both you and your daughter’s mother have the freedom to decide the terms of your own arrangement such as when child maintenance will stop. This is because a family-based arrangement is not legally-binding and there is no involvement from the courts or the statutory Child Maintenance Service.

Where child maintenance has been set up using the courts in the form of a Consent Order or Minute of Agreement (for parents that live in Scotland), you will need to review the terms and conditions of your arrangement to clarify when your payments can stop. To do this, you may wish to seek legal advice.

For more information on the ways to set up child maintenance, please visit our website at http://www.cmoptions.org. Alternatively, you can call us free on 0800 988 0988 between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday or 9am and 4pm on a Saturday. We 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