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Hi all,
If this has been mentioned before I apologise.
My 18 year old son is taking me to court for either a lump son or periodic payments under the Children’s Act, 1989. He is a student at university, lives at the fmh which is mortgage and rent free (I own 25% but can’t claim it until my youngest is 22, which will be 2024) he gets a full student loan, has approximately £6k in savings.
I have paid maintenance in full for himself and his brother, which has obviously decreased since he turned 18.
He refuses to mediate, and is estranged from me through his choice.
We have been to court for a first directions hearing and again he refused to negotiate.
Does anyone know the law on this, or heard of a similar case (other than the super wealthy!!).
Thank you for reading.
Hi
It's not something I've come across I'm afraid.
Have you spoken to a lawyer? It's quite an unusual situation.
sounds like he should be spending more time studying lol
heres somes similar but happened in the states:
Interesting reading, but looks like they can’t make sense of it either!!
Yoda, it doesn’t seem that anyone has. We’ve just got in touch with a solicitor, but because it’s such an anomaly it’s difficult to get any real firm answers. That and there isn’t any case law for this kind of action.
If it hasn’t been brought up on here before, then I’m guessing I’ll just have to see.
Thanks for your reply.
Hi there
I’ve copied and pasted, this from a solicitors website....
There is provision under Schedule 1 Children Act 1989 for an adult child, in education, to make an application for maintenance (periodical payments) from one or both parents, (the application cannot be made if the parents are still living together in the same household) but only if there was no maintenance order in force with respect to him/her before immediately before their 16th birthday.
Such applications these days are rare predominately because of the availability of student loans to pay for both tuition and living costs, but also that an adult child is unlikely to get legal aid to fund their application.
As can be seen, the provisions for adult children after the age of 18 can be complex and so it is always better for the parents to agree on how they are going to support their children through university and until
... I thought I’d have a quick look around the web to see if I could find any more info about your issue and found this...
https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/news/documents/schedule-one-children-act-1989/
I didn’t check out the case law mentioned in the above article, but you may find something there that applies to your situation.
Best of luck
Hopefully this ridiculous case gets thrown out. Child maintenance/benefit rules say the money stops when child is no longer in full time, non advanced education. Uni is a privilege.
Hi Mojo,
Thanks for your reply. I’ve read that paper before whilst trying to delve into the Children’s Act. What always stands out is one of the cases where a woman is requesting the father pay for their 5 year old daughter a yearly membership for Annabels nightclub in London!!
I will keep you updated.
Hi Bill337,
I would of thought it would of done, but the judge has ordered a 2 day final hearing so it’s looking like it’s going ahead!!
Thanks carlsberg71... I’m really interested to see how this will develop, hopefully common sense will prevail and the correct judgement will be made.
Yes, please do keep us updated.
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