Quick question

karenodo

Child is almost 19 years old, claiming income support has been for a year or so, so no child benefit in payment for a lengthy period. He is in full time education still however. Should maintenance be in payment, and more to the point during the summer break he was getting no child benefit and not attending a college for 6 weeks we notified the csa and we're told the resident parent would need to confirm but she didn't where do we stand

Thanks in advance

shoe*diva79

If child benefit isn't in receipt then child maintenance isn't needed. Have the CSA confirmed that CB isnt in receipt?

karenodo

Yes, confirmed but they are saying child support is payable because of full time education..

shoe*diva79

CB is the trigger for CM. If that is not in receipt then CM shouldnt be. Are there arrears?

karenodo

No, no arrears

justontime

If child support would be payable but is not taken due to the new income rules then child support is still payable. It sounds as if that could be what's happening in this case.

karenodo

No not an elected child benefit issue just been advised might be esa and not income support the child is claiming. Parent lost claim to child benefits etc when child claimed adult income related benefits

karenodo

Dear Sir
Thank you for your e-mail to the Child Support Agency regarding
Child Support Agency guidelines relevant to age and child support maintenance liability.
If you have a case with the Child Support Agency the maintenance liability generally continues until the child reaches the age of sixteen.

The maintenance liability remains after this date if the child continues into further full time (twelve hours a week or more), non-advanced education. In these circumstances the liability to pay child support maintenance can remain until the child reaches the age of twenty

If the qualifying child is doing any of the below for twelve hours a week or more, then the maintenance liability would remain. As long as the parent with care is still receiving Child Benefit for the child, the Child Support Agency would generally deem that the child still qualifies for child support maintenance until this benefit ceases.
A child in full time education can be in paid employment and still be eligible for child maintenance. They are allowed to work no more than 24 hours a week. However if a child claims employment related benefits including income support, income based job seekers or income based employment support allowance then liability would cease irrespective of education as the child would no longer be a qualifying child.

When a child leaves full time education in the summer, Child Benefit generally continues until the first week of September (for Scotland it can be from June onwards). If you have a case with the Agency, we would advise you to make contact nearer the time so we can investigate if the child is carrying on in full time education.
Non – Advanced Education:
GCE / GCSE – A level / AS level / O level SCE Higher Grade or equivalent
etc….

How can one say this and the other the complete opposite, how do we go about demanding case closure

justontime

If a young person is on DLA care component middle or high rate, they can under certain circumstances claim ESA in their own right at age 16 while in full time non advanced education. If that happened child benefit would not be payable. I'm not aware of any rule which says that child support is still payable in this situation. It is certainly worth challenging their decision not to close the case.

karenodo

Your right this is the situation we are in we have lots of information relating to this as esa is in effect the government maintaining the child and as the benefit is means tested it's just outrageous. The award letter on the benefit states you are awarded xxxx this is what the government states you need to live on.

Child benefit have just called me back and said how can a person be on an adult benefit and claim child support they can't be both ... Correct I guess that simple

justontime

As far as DLA is concerned the young person is obliged to claim as an adult from 16. Therefore the young person is claiming ESA as an adult in her own right. When the young person claims (and receives) ESA, child benefit and child tax credit is no longer payable. Therefore I don't understand how you can possibly still be liable to pay child support. I would certainly go through the process of appealing the decision

I remember a case on here about 6 months ago about a 'child' who had a baby and claimed child benefit and income support in her name, but CSA found the NRP (of the young mum) still liable to pay child support because she was still in full time education. I didn't understand it at the time but it seems they were using elegability for Income Support while still in full time education as a trigger for payment of child support. If I remember correctly the NRP in that case lost the appeal and had to continue paying child support.

In your circumstances I think you need specialist advice, maybe NACSA could help.