Hi
My wife has a maintenance agreement outside of CSA as part of her divorce, which we know is a lot lower than what her X would be paying via CSA. Until recently He'd always would help out with extra bits for his kid,s so this was not and issue.
He recently met a new partner which had lead him to stop seeing that much of his kids and longer help out with the extra's
So my question is can my wife go to the CSA, even though she has maintenance agreement in place via her divorce?
Many thanks,
Hi There,
.
If the current agreement was made through the divorce then she can go to CMS (CSA no longer takes new cases) if the order was made over 12 months ago, the divorce order for maintenance is only valid for 12 months after that time either party can apply to CMS for them to take over the maintenance agreement.
.
GTTS
Hello Chappie
If your wife has a court order in place for child maintenance and it was put in place after April 2003 and has been in place for more than 12 months, she can make an application to the Child Maintenance Service (the Government’s statutory maintenance service).
If the current arrangement is set up between your wife and her ex-husband directly (a family-based arrangement), an application can be made to the Child Maintenance Service at any point, if the agreement is not working.
Your wife may wish to contact Child Maintenance Options at http://www.cmoptions.org if she would like a personalised response on the options available for setting up child maintenance.
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 https://www.sortingoutseparation.org.uk/.
Regards
William