[Solved] Support payments

My court order is to make payments to my ex wife until the kids either end full time or tertiary education

My son has finished two years of his course and is currently on placement, working full time

He finished university this year, middle June and commenced employment mid August

Can anyone tell me when my payments should have stopped

My ex wife argues I should have paid up until he commenced employment in August and I say mid June when he finished his term

His payments start again when he finishes his placement year and re starts university for his final year next September

Thanks

If it was a payment through the CSA you would no longer be liable for maintenance as its not paid for advanced education such as university.

I'm not sure but it could be possible for you to go to the CSA and open a claim with them. Once a court order for maintenance is over 12 months old, any CSA claim would then overrule it. It might be worth checking this. I'd definitely have a word with the CAB about this anyway.

As far as your specific question, under CSA rules once a child finishes school or college at the end of the school year in June payments would continue until August 31st.

Hi Jane
Thanks for your help
I wondered if, seeing as my boy is at University and I am dealing with a court order and not CSA, if it is any different re payment date stopping in June, from that of a court order. If court orders tend to follow suit with CSA in respect of this, would end of university be different to end of school or college. Reason I differentiate between the two is because at end of school or college I understand why payment would go on until end of August, if they then go on to further education but at end of university it's time for the real world so to speak so why pay until end of August. Mine is made slight more problematic in as much as my boy has taken a placement at the end of his second year and going back to university for his final year next year.
So I am trying to ascertain if the gap between him finishing end of term in June this year through to job placement in August would necessitate me to make payments for Jub=ne through to August
Does what I have written make sense?
Thank you

I have no experience of court orders for maintenance, only that they can be overruled by a CSA claim after the order has been in place for 12 months.

With the CSA once a child has finished their non advanced education and have left school/college in June, the payments continue until the beginning of September. Once a child starts Uni the payments stop. I would say that you are probably liable for the June to August payments, but......

If I were you I would stick to your guns and let her take you back to court. I think it's grossly unfair that you have to continue paying for the child through Uni when if you had an agreement through the CSA your liability would cease at that point. I would want to argue that point in court!

Are you paying though the CSA as it sounds as if you are in a private arrangement???

In addition, if you are paying though the CSA then why are you accepting instructions from your ex wife?

Tricky - the term may finish a couple of months after the exams, so technically, he may be a students until then. However, there is a good argument for saying that once he has finished his exams, that's it. It depends really on whether you think your ex would go back to court if you stopped payments - it might be worth coming to an agreement to pay half between June and August.

Hi John1962

Thank you for your post, I am William the Child Maintenance Options consultant. 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. Before 10 December 2012, the upper age limit was 19.

However, if your child was 19 after this date and in full-time education, maintenance would be paid until the age of 20. In addition, if arrears have built up on a case, those arrears must still be paid, even if regular child maintenance payments have stopped.
Also, anyone aged 16 or 17 who is not in education, is not working and does not receive employment related benefits, is also defined as a child.

When a child leaves full-time education in the summer, Child Benefit generally continues until the first week of September. For further information and for a list of courses that are classed as full-time non-advanced, you may find the following website useful, https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit-16-19.

With you having a Consent Order in place you may wish to seek legal advice as to where you stand regarding your payments. You may also wish to contact the solicitor who set the arrangement up, alternatively, the following link will provide contact details for organisations in your area that offer a legal service http://find-legal-advice.justice.gov.uk/.

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.

If you would a confidential chat with Child Maintenance Options team or find out more about all the options available for child maintenance, you can call us free on 0800 988 0988 between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday or 9am and 4pm on Saturday, alternatively you can visit our website at http://www.cmoptions.org.

William