Has CM been brought inline with CHB?

shjo558

Hi,

A while back the age when Child Benefit ends was increased to 20 for some people depending on further education etc.

The Child Maintenance rules did not change in line with this immediately and I was just wondering if this has subsequently changed?

I.E - Would CM still cease on the child's 19 birthday or has it now increased to their 20th?

Thanks

Donedoingdebt

Child maintenance is still currently payable up until the child's 19th birthday.

I have phoned & emailed the CSA on this matter & they replied that they are unaware of any plans to raise the age in the near future.

Below is a reply I received from the CSA in March 2010. AS you can see, they have itemised all the changes due when CMEC systems are up & running & there is no mention of raising the age.

Dear Sir/Madam
Thank you for your email to the Child Support Agency. At the present moment we have the following information:-
The Maintenance assessment process will be simplified to enable a quicker, more accurate and easy to understand process. This process is expected to be introduced from 2011. It is proposed that the Commission will use the latest tax year information from Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) as the basis for working out how much child maintenance should be paid. Assessments will be fixed for one year unless the non-resident parent’s income changes by more than 25%.
This new process will reduce the time it takes to make a calculation and also the number of changes of circumstance the Commission will need to implement during the year.
Using previous tax year returns provided by HMRC (rather than net income payslips provided by the non-resident parent) as a basis for working out how much child maintenance should be paid will reduce the opportunities for parents to delay or mislead during the maintenance calculation process. This will further simplify and speed up the time it takes to get money flowing to children who need it.
Also proposed is an increase from £5 per week to £7 per week – in the flat rate of maintenance paid by non –resident parents on benefits.
To ensure that the move to gross income generates similar child maintenance liabilities to those under the child support scheme introduced in 2003 the Government has proposed a further change to the basic percentage rates.
• for non resident parents with incomes of between £200 and £800 a week, the rate will be 12% for 1 child, 16% for 2 children and 19% for 3 and more, across the whole income;
• for non-resident parents with incomes above £800 a week, the corresponding rates will be 9%, 12% and 15% (but only for that slice of income; for the slice of income up to £800 a week, the rates above will apply).
Thus, a non-resident parent earning £1,000 a week and with 1 child to support would pay 12% of the first £800 and 9% on the remaining £200 of income, a total liability of £114 a week.
If you require any further information, please contact the National Help Line on 08457 133133, or for those who are hard of hearing and have a text-phone, please contact: 08457 138 924. We are open Monday to Friday from 8am to 8pm and Saturdays from 9am to 5pm. In addition the Child Support Agency’s website can be viewed at: [URL="mhtml:{B7F34A16-C6BC-45B3-A41C-8D860019DBF0}mid://00000024/!x-usc:file://www.csa.gov.uk/"]www.csa.gov.uk[/URL]
[FONT=Arial (W1)]We would also like to make you aware that we now accept Credit and Debit Card payments by telephone/[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial (W1)]Regards[/FONT]
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
[FONT=Arial (W1)]National Help Line[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial (W1)]Liverpool[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial (W1)]Child Support Agency[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial (W1)]08457 133133[/FONT]
[URL="mhtml:{B7F34A16-C6BC-45B3-A41C-8D860019DBF0}mid://00000024/!x-usc:http://www.csa.gov.uk/"][FONT=Arial (W1)]www.csa.gov.uk[/FONT][/URL]

shjo558

Thanks, hopefully that means only 8 months to go until DH can stop paying for a child that he hasn't seen in over 10 years despite trying through courts etc. PWC must be the most obstructive person ever.

Also means that for once, our DS, might be able to keep his Child Benefit money as it's counted as income in our CM assessment!

Sorry, I am very very bitter about it all as we have never been able to buy nice things for our DS or have holidays yet PWC has a lavish lifestyle.

markeymark

so does this mean they will re-assess everyone? or is it just new cases?