Morning all - Hopefully someone on here can give me a little bit of advice.
I have 2 children with an ex partner: my eldest is 19 in December, finished her A Levels in the summer and is looking for a full time job. My son is 17 in a few weeks and is starting college. We had a private maintenance agreement that was set up in 2010 and had an expiry date of December 2021 (my daughter's 18th Birthday.)
This month, following a conversation with my ex back in April, I reduced my monthly child maintenance payments from 620 to 310 to reflect the fact that my daughter has finished full time education (as far as the CMS info goes on gov.uk it says that an arrangement must be in place until children are 16 or until 20 if they are in full time education, which my daughter now isn't.)
My ex partner has now decided to pressure me to reinstate the full amount for both of my children or she has threatened that I get hit with court action (she's talking to her solicitor this afternoon apparently.) She had quit her job and has decided to set herself up in business and the full maintenance is, as she puts it, a lifeline.
Historically, I have always tried to help where I could - there has been other additional payments outside of the regular child maintenance amounts (I've been asked to contribute halves for extra curricular activities, e.g. clubs as well as clothing and other things.) I recently moved house and gave both of my children 1,000 each out of the proceeds, both of whom have spent the money on car maintenance (my eldest) and a bike (my son.) When we originally separated, I took no equity from our shared house (out of choice as my ex partner was the primary child carer) so she was able to buy a similar property in the same area while I moved to a lower-priced one.
Lots background there but I guess my question is am I really under pressure to continue to fund full childcare while my eldest is no longer in full time education. My ex is pushing a "but they're dependant on me therefore it needs to continue" argument but I'm not sure that this holds water - why would there need to be a blank cheque to my ex to continue to fund 1 adult. Likewise, the decision to become self employed (and the short term consequences of that) were hers alone.
Any advice welcome
Thanks,
Duncan
hi, its up to you. if you don't agree with her and she opens a case with child maintenance service, they will tell you that as long as children are in full-time education, you have to pay maintenance. they will check if child benefit claims are still open or not. if child benefit is still active, they will tell you to keep paying maintenance.
also it is possible for her to make a court application for financial provision for children, for example to pay for university fees etc