[Solved] Child Maintenance Payments

Hi there 🙂

I dont know a huge amount about the CSA but I think that you pay until the child is 16, or 20 if they are in full time non advanced education...as a degree is considered advanced you should not be paying for your oldest any longer.

As far as your youngest daughter is concerned, A levels do count as non advanced and so you will be liable for CSA for her until she reaches the age of 20, if she is still in non advanced education.

The CSA base their duty to claim on whether the resident parent is in receipt of child benefit.

You could contact Child Maintenance Options for some advice.

Hello woodsylaa

Thank you for your post. I am William, the Child Maintenance Options consultant. I understand that you pay child maintenance for your two daughters. One is 17 and studying her A-levels while your eldest daughter is 20 and is studying towards her degree. You have asked at what point your responsibility to pay child maintenance ends.

You do not mention in your post what type of child maintenance arrangement you have in place. If you have a family-based arrangement, which you and your daughters' mother have agreed the terms of together, it is up to the both of you to decide together when your payments will stop. A family-based arrangement is not legally binding but it is flexible to meet the needs of parents, or the children, if their circumstances change. However, when parents can not reach an agreement some choose to follow the guidelines set out by the Child Support Agency (CSA), which is the Government's statutory maintenance service.

The CSA state that child maintenance must be paid by the paying parent to the receiving parent until the child turns 16 or until they reach 20 if they are in full-time, non-advanced education (not higher than A-level equivalent), or for as long as Child Benefit is being paid. When a child leaves full-time education in the summer, Child Benefit generally continues until the first week of September. Also, anyone aged 16 or 17 who is not in education, is not working and does not receive employment related benefits, is also defined as a child.

If you do have a case with the CSA, you may wish to confirm this information with them. You can find the CSA's contact details on any letter that they have sent to you or on their website, along with further information about when child maintenance ends, at http://www2.dwp.gov.uk/csa/v2/en/contact/index.asp.

If you have a Consent Order in place, which is an arrangement made through the courts, you will need to seek legal advice. You may like to contact a solicitor or Civil Legal Advice (CLA) may be able to help you. CLA is a Government funded confidential legal service offering free advice to those eligible for Legal Aid in England and Wales, their website is http://www.gov.uk/civil-legal-advice.

To find out more about how Child Maintenance Options can help, or for information on all the options available to put in place a child maintenance arrangement, including online tools and forms to help with family-based arrangements, you can visit our website at http://cmoptions.org. If you would prefer a friendly and confidential chat, please call us on 0800 988 0988 (free from a landline).

We also have a sorting out separation web-app, it aims to make it much easier for separated parents to find the support they need, when and where they need it, and encourages parents to collaborate on a range of issues. The link is: http://www.dad.info/divorce-and-separation/sorting-out-separation

Hope this helps.