My son is 19 in November ,he has been at college for 2 years and was due to start an apprenticing with the firm he works for. When his mother received a letter advising he that maintenance would stoprthe immediately enrolled for a further. We don't know if he will even start it or drop out soon after. My other query that as a catering student he often works full time and finished studying in April and has worked constantly since then. He pays rent to his mum, do we still have to pay as well? Things are really tight for us as my wife had to give up work to care for our son who has a brain tumor. Please help if u can Craig
Hi Craig
I'm so sorry to hear about your sons illness, this must be a very worrying time for you all.
I'm pretty sure, if a child works for more than 24 hours a week, the Child Benefit office must be informed, particularly as he finished studying in April.
If you have a child maintenance arrange,ent that is through the CSA then you would have to wait until they informed you that you no longer have to pay. If the arrangement has been made privately between yourselves then that would allow you to negotiate with the mother.
Perhaps you can contact her and tell her that she is duty bound to contact the child benefit office if your son works more than 24 hrs. a week....but if he has enrolled in another course and attends for more than 12 hrs a week, the likelihood is that you will be expected to continue to pay.
Might there be any extra benefits you're entitled to because of your sons condition? It might be useful to go and see someone at the Citizens Advice Bureau, they would be able to tell you what might be available.
I wish you and your family the very best and in do hope your son makes a complete recovery.
Hello Craig 010
The post that Mojo has made does provide some correct advice for you to consider and I would like to offer you some further information at what must be a very worrying, and difficult, time for you and your family.
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. The definition of full-time education is more than 12 hours a week of study, on a course up to and including A-level standard.
As Mojo has said, if you do have a statutory scheme arrangement either with the Child Support Agency (CSA) or the Child Maintenance Service, you will be informed when your payments should come to an end, however, you can contact them at any time to enquire about your arrangement if you wish and you should be able to find their contact contact details on any letter they have sent you or www.gov.uk/child-maintenance.
When a child leaves full-time education in the summer, Child Benefit generally continues until the first week of September therefore, even though your son finished college in April his mum may still be entitled to receive Child Benefit for him, however, if he is working full-time as well this may affect his mum's eligibility to receive the benefit. As Child Maintenance Options are not experts regarding this particular area, you may wish to speak to HMRC yourself and I have provided their number for you Child Benefit - 0300 200 3100 - Opening hours: 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday 8am to 4pm Sat.
If you do have a family-based arrangement in place for your maintenance payments at the moment it really is up to you and your son's mum to decide when your payments should come to an end. Family-based arrangements are not legally binding so you have no strict rules to follow and if you do need some help in negotiating your agreement, Child Maintenance Options do have some supporting tools on their website at https://www.cmoptions.org that might help you both come to an agreement.
Their Talking About Money Guide and their Discussion Guide are full of information about how you can plan your conversation with your son's mum and how to negotiate your agreement. They also point out the financial costs involved in raising a child and can give you both ideas about what can be included in your agreement.
You may also be interested to know the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have a website, 'Sorting out Separation'. It aims to make it much easier for separating and separated parents (and childless couples) to find the support they need, when and where they need it, and encourages them to collaborate on a range of issues. The link is http://www.sortingoutseparation.org.uk/
For more information and for a more personalised service, you may wish to visit the Child Maintenance Options website yourself at https://www.cmoptions.org.
Regards
William
Thank you for your help, I think I knew that we probably had to continue to pay but it just seems very unfairx
Thank you for your help I will have a look at the site that you mentionedx