Can child support payments go to the child direct?

bobbles123

After some advice, please.

My partner's daughter has just turned 16. He has had no contact with his daughter for about 6 years, and has just heard that she had a falling out with her mother and has moved in with her grandmother (on her mother's side). Her grandmother is now trying to get in contact with my partner (via other family members) and is requesting that child support (private arrangement rather than through CSA) be paid directly to his daughter.

What are the consequences of this? Should he still keep paying it to his ex-partner as she is still the legal guardian? Should he wait until the grandmother is the legal guardian before he pays money over and then pay it to her rather than the daughter? His ex-partner hasn't made any mention of this, and apparently this happened months ago, so she is happily taking the money and not passing any of it on. She has also emptied her daughter's bank account (don't know if that makes any difference).

Any advice is appreciated.

bobbles123

shoe*diva79

Do not give any additional money until the case is closed as you will incur arrears. The grandmother needs to have the child benefit switched to herself (if daughter still in education?) and then the case can be closed and a private arrangement can be seted out.

bobbles123

Thanks for the quick reply.

There is no case with the CSA at the moment as it is all done via private arrangement. Yes, the daughter is still in private education.

So, if we stop payments to his ex-partner, we won't be 'in trouble'?

bobbles123

HappyMJ

bobbles123 wrote: »

Thanks for the quick reply.

There is no case with the CSA at the moment as it is all done via private arrangement. Yes, the daughter is still in private education.

So, if we stop payments to his ex-partner, we won't be 'in trouble'?

bobbles123

No...it's private. If you stop paying she can open a CSA case but as she doesn't have the child with her she won't get far.

bobbles123

Ok, that makes us feel a bit better about stopping payments to his ex-partner. She's a troublemaker and will look for any avenue to carry on receiving money.

FBaby

HappyMJ wrote: »

No...it's private. If you stop paying she can open a CSA case but as she doesn't have the child with her she won't get far.

He will be if she is still claiming child benefit for her. In an ideal world, child benefit should have been transferred to the grand mother, in which case, all is well, however, if it wasn't and the mother is being a problem, she could still be claiming. Although fraudulently, the csa will say that this is not their problem and you will still need to pay her visa csa if she makes a claim until he or the grand-mother can prove that fraud is taking place, which could take months.

I would ask the grandmother first to confirm that she is now getting child benefit.

HappyMJ

FBaby wrote: »

He will be if she is still claiming child benefit for her. In an ideal world, child benefit should have been transferred to the grand mother, in which case, all is well, however, if it wasn't and the mother is being a problem, she could still be claiming. Although fraudulently, the csa will say that this is not their problem and you will still need to pay her visa csa if she makes a claim until he or the grand-mother can prove that fraud is taking place, which could take months.

I would ask the grandmother first to confirm that she is now getting child benefit.

It is a private arrangement...it has nothing to do with CSA or child benefit. There will be no trouble at all if payments were to stop.

FBaby

HappyMJ wrote: »

It is a private arrangement...it has nothing to do with CSA or child benefit. There will be no trouble at all if payments were to stop.

It will be if she decided that she wants to make a claim with csa when the payments stop. If she IS claiming CB (when she shouldn't be any longer), the csa are more than likely not going to question whether the child is living with her or not).

There are enough threads here proving that the csa doesn't see it its role to investigate whether pwcs have the right to claim CB or not and it can take many months for dwp to do so.

HappyMJ

FBaby wrote: »

It will be if she decided that she wants to make a claim with csa when the payments stop. If she IS claiming CB (when she shouldn't be any longer), the csa are more than likely not going to question whether the child is living with her or not).

There are enough threads here proving that the csa doesn't see it its role to investigate whether pwcs have the right to claim CB or not and it can take many months for dwp to do so.

Sure...but the NRP will not be "in trouble" if the current privately agreed payments stop.

bobbles123

FBaby wrote: »

I would ask the grandmother first to confirm that she is now getting child benefit.

Thanks for the replies. It has made interesting reading, especially in light of the fact that the parent isn't entitled to claim child benefit if their child has been living away from home for 56 days.

Assuming the grandmother is now getting child benefit (and we will confirm this), does this mean child support payments should be made to the grandmother, and not the child herself?

FBaby

It's up to the person getting child benefit to decide how to go about it. They can go to csa, they can have an arrangement with the nrp for him to pay them, or they could also agree for the money to go straight to the child, however, they might insist that the child then pays a share of the bills, so the 16yo would have to show a certain level of maturity to manage the money appropriately.