Ive been seperated from my wife for 9 years now and lived seperate all this time she has got csa involved about my 2 kids one is 11 the other 17 at full time college my son 17 is working 24hrs a week as well but i still have to pay maintenance for him.do i have to pay full maintanence to my ex although he working those hours and my ex will not allow my kids to stay with me and new partner or even meet her.if i want to take kids for weekend im not allowed to as the ex is refusing.
With all this do i still have to pay full maintenance.
Hi there
As far as I'm aware, your 17 year old is allowed to work up to 24 hrs a week and still qualify for CM if still in full time education (full time means more than 12 hours a week)
Contact with children and child maintenance are not connected and one is not at all dependent on the other.
At 17 your son can choose to come and see you and he doesn't need his mothers permission to do so. You do have options as far as contact with your youngest is concerned and the first step would be to attend mediation to try and get the mother to agree to some kind of schedule. If this doesn't work then you can make an application to court for a Child Arrangements Order for contact. Unless there is a risk of harm from your ex it's highly unlikely that the court would rule that she and your child couldn't have contact and if you were to be granted an order it's up to you where you take your child and who they are introduced to whilst in your care.
If you were to gain an order for weekend stays then you could expect your maintenance payments to be reduced by 1/7th for each night per week that the child stays with you.
Best of luck