[Sticky] When does child maintenance (CMS) stop after a child leaves education?

My daughter has just turned 17 and is not in education due to mental health issues since 16. Her mother claims to still be able to claim child benefit for her as she is registered with Connexions which helps parents of children with MH issues. 

Do I have to keep paying maintenance?

If so, when can I stop? Will it be on her 18th birthday?

Thanks

hi, if your paying through CMS, they will expect you to keep paying maintenance as long as child still qualifies for child benefit. 

hi, found some info on this. It’ll either be a 20 week extension or their 18th birthday, whichever happens first.

https://revenuebenefits.org.uk/pdf/CH299_2011.pdf

You could get extended Child Benefit for up to 20 weeks if your child is 16 or 17, has left approved education or training, and has either:

• registered for work, training or full-time education with a ‘qualifying body’ (for example, a careers service or Connexions)

The extension to Child Benefit will stop:
• at the end of the extended benefit period (20 weeks from
the date the young person leaves full-time non advanced
education or approved training), or
• when the young person reaches age 18 during the
extended benefit period.

My daughter is 18 and starts uni in September,am I right in thinking that my cms payment will end at the end of august?

I spoke to someone at cms last week to get confirmation of this but they said I have to pay in September and October still.even though they sent me an email saying when child benefit stops,maintenance stops 

Hello All, I have a daughter that I "think" is in approved education (as per the CMS definition) and should have completed her exams in June 23. Unfortunately, as my ex-wife and her family have managed to "persuade" my two children not to have any contact with me (the 2 contact orders I obtained were totally toothless-different story) , I can't be certain of their circumstances. Do I need to continue to pay Child Maintenance if she underperforms in her exams and wishes to retake? She'll be 19 years of age in Oct 2023. My elder child is now at university (again, I think), so I believe that it is no longer necessary to pay for them.

Thanks in advance for any advice on this.

@anders53 If your daughter remains in full-time, approved education (i.e., more than an average of 12 hours a week supervised study or course-related work experience), then yes, child maintenance will still be applicable.

Approved education for Child Maintenance is the same as its list for Child Benefit.

1. A levels or similar, for example Pre-U, International Baccalaureate
2. T levels
3. Scottish Highers
4. NVQs and other vocational qualifications up to level 3
5. home education - if it started before your child turned 16 or after 16 if they have special needs
6. traineeships in England

If they are re-sitting their approved exam (and subsequently left education) in the next few months (i.e., from 1 September 2023), as opposed to the full academic year (2023-24), then child maintenance is likely to cease before 31 August 2024. 

• 30 November 2023
• 29 February 2024
• 31 May 2024
• 31 August 2024

I hope this is of help.

@infodesk Thanks for your response. The challenge I face is that the CSA states that I will need to continue to pay if my ex-wife continues to claim child benefit. As my wife and I haven't communicated in years, I doubt that she'll volunteer whether she continues to receive child benefit. The CSA says that it will be notified, but will the CSA notify me? Neither my ex-wife nor children have let me know how they performed in their exams etc. I only found out today that they no longer use my surname and have adopted to use my ex-wife's maiden name.

Hi all,

Found this thread amazingly interesting given my current situtation and really don't want to bore everyone with too much detail it's just I've spent the last couple of week getting bounced pillar to post trying to understand what my situation is at this time...

I've paid Child Maintenance since 2019 via Voluntary Arrangment with the ex. never missed payment and occasionally far exceeded that which was agreed without complaint the current rate I'm at is £545 p/mth payment due 1st Sep 2023.

My question surrounds this mystifying "Further Education" and the age of your child etc.

In this instance my daughter turned 17 in Apr of this year, in Sep of 2022 at the age of 16 she signed up for college to resit her Maths GCSE and an NVQ L2 Social Sciences course...the GCSE studies were Mon & Tue each week and the Social Sciences Wed each week.

Now herein is the problem I have, as there is very little reasonable communication between my ex and unfortunately my daughter being a typical 17yr old with a boyfriend has next to no time to explain things in detail which led me to look into her acedemic record with the college where I found out that she had quit the Social Sciences course prior to Christmas 2022 added to which there were numerous incidents (this is how the college has reported it to me after a lengthy discussion) wherin she failed to attend class, failed to submit homework or atually left lessons half way through to attend a job she had sourced at a local garden centre.

As a result her attendance for the period of Sep 22 to Apr 23 was recorded as 73% and an intervention was called, this all being news to me! As not once had I been informed as I am an emergency contact after her mother and her mothers friend and am not privy nor informed of her performance, attendance etc.

So as of Apr 23 my daughter was working (for a limited time as she was let go after the prelim period for bad attedance a pattern forms).

Her GCSE results land on 24th this week but it would appear from reading above that her having to resit once more does not count towards her being in further education or am I misreading this in someway?

Added to which for the entire period she was working and not actually in college attending course nor meeting the required hours p/wk for education this has me stumped as I've paid this entire period throughout!

The college furhermore have informed me that prior to acceptance she must agree to some form of arrangement for attendance and they will inform me of her hours per week that are classed as "supervised education".

I'm trying to figure out if whether the ex should have informed HMRC (I understand this should be an automatic thing for them anyway?) to inform them of the circumstance and how it may effect her benefit which in turn would effectively also have an impact on my payments to date?

If anyone here can shed any light on this I would be most grateful as I've spent hours on hold to Benefits and CMS to get answers but to no avail.

I'm trying to ascertain if I for the coming month should continue paying or bring up a grievance that I have paid since the Apr of this year when I needn't have?

Either way the payment due the 1st Sep I'm wishing to hold back on due to the fact that she might not even recieve a place at the college as she must first, with her mother, attend this intevention and panel to decide if she can study a new NVQ course which is to be held around the 5th or 6th Sep.

Anyone with something similar or any advice at all I'd gladly take it as it's almost impossible to find the information required.

Thanks to all.

@zymada hi this may explain it:

https://youtu.be/XXyPXUojjF0

Good morning

I am caught up in the paying parent fiasco as my son left school on the 21st June but due to legislation I am expected to pay until September.  I did not make any payments from July as I feel really aggrieved at this outdated process.  CMS are now chasing me as my delightful ex-wife reported me in July for non-payment.  It is always the paying parent who suffers financially. I have written to my MP to ask her to lobby on behalf of paying parents to get this system overhauled as other Government sites, e.g., DVLA, records are updated immediately.

If the receiving parent notifies CMS that they want the case closed does anyone know if CMS will stop expecting payments or do they follow the legislation get out clause?  Unlikely in my case as my ex wants every last penny.

I would like to suggest that every paying parent whose child has left education in June to lobby their MP for change to occur as when I emailed my MP they had never had a complaint of this nature before.  It seems paying dads just put up with this!

@bill337 Thanks I'd actually watched the video prior to joining the site as it was informative and helped in someway better understand things.

So in essence is the fact that my daughter left further education end of April latest (she was not attending college at this point) but sat her last Maths GCSE as of 19th June (after speaking with the college) that effectively she was still in further education? Even though she had obtained a job via the Job Centre and that time was working more than 24hrs p/wk?

Are the exams she sat still counted towards being in further education and the Child Benefit Agency will continue to pay, otherwise if the exams don't count as further education then benefits should cease as of Sep and effectively I should have ceased payments as of May when she told me of her job (via the local job centre) she had obtained after being let go from the previous employment she had attained but this was less than 24hrs p/wk.

Again if anyone has come across anything similar I'd be most grateful for any advice on this matter.

@zymada Even though your daughter took her exams in May, child maintenance is not based on the standard academic year (September - July) in England and Wales. The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) includes the period between July (or June if an independent school) to 31 August so it's aligned with when Child Benefit (which would also seize on 31 August - where applicable) stops.

Unfortunately, the CMS' own published guidance is misleading, as it leads the paying parent to believe that child maintenance stops the date the payee's son or daughter leaves full-time, non-advanced education, which is invariably in June/July. It raises the question, how can a child still be considered to be in full-time education when they've finished their CGSEs or A level exams and the school is closed (until September). 

In more cases than not, the paying parent doesn't know if the receiving (child maintenance) parent is claiming Child Benefit; however, it's arguably good practice to notify the Child Maintenance Service that you're child has left school at the end of July (even if you don't have access to the school calendar), as it will leave as indent on their system. 

You can expect to receive a frustrating reply to the effect of: We have spoken with the other parent (even if they haven't - which I know to be the cases I'm familiar with) but....  (See below for seemingly automated response):