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Hi
Some advice would be great fully received
my divorce settlement states that I should pay child maintenance until my daughter is 18 or completes full time secondary education
my daughter turns 18 this month so I’ve informed my ex that I will be stopping payments - it’s always been an informal arrangement based on govt calculation - this was on the basis that she is now 18 and left secondary education at 16
she is however in further education and about to complete her final year of an NVQ course
….my ex has responded by saying she wants my p60 and I should continue payments - she has now contacted the CMS who have allegedly told her that they would supersede any divorce court order and could force me to pay and I’d get charged an extra 20% per month if it goes through CMS
is this right? What’s the point of the court order?
Honestly as she’s 18 I thought I’d finally finished all this having paid dutifully for 10 years
Thanks
hi, unfortunately this is a common scenario. CMS is open to any parents, as long as child is still in full time education.
NVQ levels 1, 2, and 3 are generally classified as further education, while NVQ levels 4 and above are considered higher education. if she doing NVQ level 4 and above, that's higher education and CMS will not expect you to make payments.
the 20% charge is only for domestic abusers or those that miss payments/fail to pay. sounds like she is scaring you into giving in to her demands. problem is if your child decides to stay in full time (non advanced) education for longer, technically you could be paying until she turns 20. thats final cut off age for child maintenance.
If you continue to pay, would you be paying less than the CMS calculates? If so, then, if that's still an option, then I would continue to pay (making sure that your payments are clearly marked as maintenance payments - if not, then if the CMS are involved, they have been known to disregard these as 'voluntary'). If the CMS calculation is less than you are paying, then you may as well go through CMS, and there is a certain logic to you applying to CMS for this (used to cost a one-off £20 to open a case, not sure what it is now) - the reason for this is that it's down to the person who opened the case to close it, so if your daughter left education, you can request it, rather than relying on your ex to do so.
- Samaritans – call 116 123
- Shout – text the word ‘Shout’ to 85258
