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

@dazlad73 https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit/eligibility

Posted by: @dadmod2

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 Hello good morning. I thought i'd just do a quick video because i've seen a lot of inquiries about payment of child maintenance payments, and as it's now June a lot of children have left college and have, in some cases already started employment or going off to university, so there's lots of queries about whether child maintenance should be paid.

Well, first of all, kind of yes, and no it depends on the situation. What's key though is the child benefit cut-off dates so if a child is in education and finishes their exams maybe mid-june, the child benefit agency will continue to pay child benefit until September therefore the Child Maintenance Service will therefore use that as a cut off date for the payment of child maintenance. Okay and you know this is traditionally put down to the fact that children will often go back to college and reset a levels or maybe they don't know what they want to do but the facts are the end of the day, child benefit actually has four cut off dates during the year.

Now what a lot of people don't realize is those four cut off dates are important because one of those cut off dates is in June so here's the important Child Maintenance point, if your child left education prior to 1 June, and has started employment child benefit should have stopped on the 1st of June If they left education after the 1st of June and went into employment. child benefit will stop in September, around about the 5th of September this year And so that's it.

so i'll give you an example i recently dealt with a case where the child left education in April, and the child maintenance service were informed in may that the child had left education but the child maintenance service insisted that child maintenance was to paid because child benefit was being paid. Well a quick contact with the child benefit agency, where they said well do you want to make a fraud report and various other letters soon resolve that because basically the child left education in april and therefore child benefit should have absolutely assist what's up completely on the 1st of June so that case is now resolved so just a quick one if your child leave education before the first adjoining gets a job CMS should stop from the 1st of June because child benefits should stop being paid if they leave after June then the next cut-off date is the 5th or 4th o September hope this helps have a great day, see you later cheers.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXyPXUojjF0

Hi Bill, some great advise and thank you. This is my scenario, I unfortunately have no contact with my daughter and do not know where she lives. She has recently finished secondary school as she turned 16 in July. I rang the CMS to find out about when payments stop etc, they said that HMRC will tell them if she is earning I.e she has left school and gone into full time work, I assume this is known as she will be paying tax? Albeit how could they tell if it’s a part time job whilst at college or full time education, unfortunately I’ve had a bad experience with CMS continually miss calculating my monthly payments so I’ve been over paying however that’s not the issue. I’m unsure how I can find out if she is going to secondary education or full time employment?, would anyone have any advice please.

@matte2222 in your situation it seems you would have to rely on CMS alot. It mainly depends on the status of child benefit. If and when HMRC tell CMS that child is no longer eligible for child benefit, CMS will tell you to stop paying maintenance.

@infodesk I had this same letter this morning, after notify CMS yesterday 31 Aug 24 after 4pm that my daughter was off to uni.

I have been paying cms for the last 10 years its recently changed to direct pay i have asked her to just cancel it as i thort things was going good but she refused they have set the amount for me to pay which i have done for years now and i always send her money for things and for the kids if they ask cms told me i should always report any money extra what i send no matter what so i reported it to them today and now she is having a go at me because i did that and now shes saying any money she has sent me for the kids ie when they ask her for money when they are with me and she is now saying shes sent that to cms but what does that mean as i pay her and she thinks that cms is now gna  somehow do something because she has sent me money any 1 know of this situation

hi,

whatever money she has given you, CMS will likely treat it as a gift. don't think it will have any affect on what your currently paying. CMS is used when parents can not agree on private arrangement, so not sure why she is arguing with you about money. Going forward you should avoid money conversations with her and ask her to contact CMS if she has any queries.

@pelekan 

I am in almost an identical situation, with a child allegedly born in Dec 2005.

They have been stealing from my salary 750 pounds per month for the last 10 years. 

I've been ignored and now just accept that I will continue to be stolen from. 

My daughter left education in April this year and is now in full time work/apprenticeship in which she completes 2 hours online study a week (well below the 12 a week required for child maintenance). She earns around £1100 a week and I am still paying child maintenance for her. My ex wife has not informed the child benefit agency of it so she is also still receiving child benefit for my daughter also. I have raised this with the child maintenance service and even uploaded my daughters work contract and they have rejected my appeals. I have also reported fraud to child benefit agency and nothing has come of it. My ex wife does not work at all, sleeps in bed all day and tells the children that she’s ok as she’ll be getting ‘Dad’s money’ soon which is obviously infuriating to hear as they often go without food and she is always out drinking and has left the children alone in the house from ten years old. I am happy to provide child maintenance and have never not paid my ex but am so frustrated at this situation. Where can I go from here? It seems that there is no other agencies to explore?!

@jessiehill hi sorry to hear. the dad from one of these videos had similar issues. he kept phoning CMS and telling them that he thinks his son is working,.can they check if he is working. and eventually they closed his case. you could request for a case worker to look into this.

https://youtube.com/@peterhulse3173?si=OIg72U8evfezy47_