No Child Benefit, child is non attending at school - mum can still claim maintenance

Hoping that someone else is in a similar situation and can advise.

Before the negativity begins - I was a single parent for years so am aware of the importance of maintenance etc. I am now seeing things from the NRP side.

My other half has just been told he has to pay a child maintenance amount based on last year's annual salary. He has since been relocated which means fewer hours which equates to a 29% reduction in salary therefore we are in the middle of trying to get this sorted out. Which makes this whole story worse is that my other half has paid the full amount of maintenance for several years - whilst his son stayed with us for the majority of the week, the CSA believed it was a 50/50 shared care which meant (surprise, surprise) mum could get maintenance money which she did. This year my stepson stayed with his mum on average twice a week from beginning of Jan until late July but she still received maintenance up until July. He then turned 16 and for some unknown reason has decided to spend all his time at mums so, I suppose, quite rightly she has asked for maintenance again! But the frustration is that he has hardly attended school - 33% attendance at present; she has not been formally awarded Child Benefit as yet but she can claim thousands of pounds in maintenance over the next year. Currently the school have offered him a transition programme but not sure if he will attend and if maintenance will still be due. Even the school believe that mum is trying to get son to attend school just to enable maintenance payments! Obviously the school want what is best for the child as do we but he has just not been engaging for months. I was under the belief that child benefit and maintenance were only paid if the child was in at least 12 hours of supervised education per week - which he hasn't been.
Basically we are trying to find a legal route to go down regarding the unfairness of this system. We have suffered for years from unfairness and at times, my other half has been blatantly accused of trying to avoid payment from old CSA staff (which he never has). We did involve our local MP (who is no longer an MP now)who managed to get a more fair system in place for night shift workers. Any advice ?

Comments

  • Rejast
    Rejast Posts: 45
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    Is child of school age? If they should still be in school as in up to year 11 then their (non) attendance doesn't matter.
    The 12 hour rule applies to sixth form/college for child benefit purposes. Child maintenance is dependant upon where the child lives.
    As for your partner paying full maintenance, did he not get the relevant reductions for shared care?
  • The poster above is correct. The child is of school age so maintenance must be paid. After all, he still costs the same amount of money - whether he attends his lessons or not. I'm surprised you think it's OK not to pay just because he isn't attending his lessons.


    What is his father doing about the school attendance problem? (apart from using it as an excuse to try to wriggle out of paying)
    Overactively underachieving for almost half a century
  • 13Kent
    13Kent Posts: 1,177
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    I thought that the person receiving the child benefit was the one that the CSA deemed to be the one to receive maintenance - in the past if the CSA have done a child benefit check and the PWC is not eligible for child benefit then the maintenance isn't payable.
  • When did he turn 16? Was it before or after 1st September 2016?
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