My 17 year old son was evicted by his mother, and has moved in with my sister. He could live with me, but I'm a bit too far for his to travel for work / education. I give my sister money to help support him. Is this something that I ought to seek a contribution from his mother?... would it be a Child Support Agency matter, given that he doe not actually "live" with me?
Thanks you...
Hi, that's a fairly unusual situation. My guess is that you would pay inline with the CMS calculator but it is worth giving the Child Maintenance Options helpline a call to clarify this.
If your son is still classed as being in full time, non advanced education (that anything over 12hrs and up to university level) your sister should make a claim for child benefit, which she would be entitled to as he is living with her. Once she has the child benefit I'm pretty sure she can open a case with the CSA and claim maintenance.
You could approach the mother and ask her to agree to contribute towards his upkeep, this is called a family based arrangement. If she refuses then I think you should call CMO as Yoda suggested, to discuss the options. They will be able to clarify whether your sister has a right to claim, you should make them aware that you have already come to a family based arrangement with your sister and are already contributing.
Hello TH2008
All parents do have a responsibility to provide financially for their children and your son’s mother is also required to help contribute by paying child maintenance while your son is in the care of your sister.
As Mojo has suggested, while your sister is your son’s main guardian, if your son remains in full-time non advanced education, you and your son’s mother do have a requirement to pay child maintenance.
Your sister may be able to apply for your son’s Child Benefit and she will need to speak to the relevant office at HM Revenue and Customs and information can be found about this at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk.
It sounds like you already have a family-based arrangement in place with your sister at the moment and your son’s mother can also make this kind of arrangement with her.
Many parents do now choose to sort out their maintenance between themselves and it can be the quickest and easiest way of setting up a maintenance agreement and although family-based arrangements are not legally binding, they are very flexible.
Child Maintenance Options do have all the information about family-based arrangements and all the other options on their website at http://www.cmoptions.org. You and your sister can also find some supporting tools which may help you both negotiate with your son’s mother and put an additional arrangement in place with her as well.
If you and your sister are unable to come to a family-based arrangement with your son’s mother your sister does also have the option of making an application with the Government’s statutory scheme, the Child Maintenance Service. For further information about putting in place a statutory arrangement and the fees involved with this, your sister will need to contact Child Maintenance Options herself.
Another choice your sister has for arranging child maintenance is through the courts in the form of a Consent Order in England and Wales and Minute of Agreement in Scotland. This is an agreement where parents or guardians, with the support of a solicitor, would need to agree what to include then the agreement is presented in court and is ratified.
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 and your sister may wish to visit the Child Maintenance Options website yourselves.
Regards
William