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Morning all, My daughter is 17 and has finished school, now shes on an apprentiship as a dental nurse. Please can you let me know when I can stop paying her mum. Does an apprentiship class as employment (she's paid £800) or is it classed as educational course. Thanks for the help
This covers the rules - http://www.dad.info/forum/child-maintenance/28937-child-maintenance-and-f-e-when-payment-stops
I'm not sure where hers comes under this - if there is more than 12 hours of education per week, then it may well still be classed as education under this.
Are you paying via CSA or is it a private arrangement?
Hi Sensiblesocc3r
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. When a child leaves full-time education in the summer, Child Benefit generally continues until the first week of September. You can find more information on when child maintenance stops on Gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/child-maintenance/contact. You can also find more information on a parent’s eligibility to receive Child Benefit including approved education and training at https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit/eligibility.
However, if you have a family-based arrangement in place, there are no strict rules to stick to. Therefore, both you and your daughter’s mum have the freedom to decide the terms of your own arrangement, such as when your 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 services.
If you have a case in place with either the Child Support Agency (CSA) or the Child Maintenance Service, you may wish to contact the organisation that is managing your child maintenance to discuss your query. This is because we are a different organisation and do not have access to your case information. You can find the relevant contact information on any letters that you may have received, or for the CSA by visiting Gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/child-maintenance/contact.
Where child maintenance has been set up via 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 what both you and your daughter’s mum agreed on when your child maintenance will end. 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
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