End of Child Maintenance payments.

Barney1978

Hello,

I am trying to work out when I should stop paying child maintenance to my ex for my son. I have googled this and although a lot of sites do state the criteria for this, my situation is not so straight forward.

My son finished school in summer 2015 (At 16). I understand it is a legal requirement that children must stay in education until they are 18, either as college or as a work based apprenticeship.

My son has not done anything since he left back in 2015 and although I know this is illegal, being the non resident parent with sporadic contact, I have not been able to enforce this. I am not entirely sure how this is enforced. I assumed there was some sort of education liaison or enforcement officer who would be in contact with the child or the resident parent, but according to my son there isn't.

With the CSA closing down, my payments through them stopped last May, but I came to an agreement with his mother that I would continue paying by direct debit.

My thoughts were that if he was still in the same situation when he turns 18 (This April), that I would not have to make anymore payments as he would be entitled to Job Seekers Allowance.

The Gov website only states the following,

'Child maintenance payments usually stop when the child reaches 16 (or 20 if they're in full-time education up to A-level or equivalent). Child maintenance can also stop if, for example: the child stops being eligible for Child Benefit.'

Can anyone help? Thank you.

Raspberry_Swirl

There is no enforcement with regards to a child staying in some form of education until they're 18. I work in a FE college!

Although your son can't apply for JSA until the age of 18, you're under no obligation to make maintenance payments for him from the age of 16 if he fails to enrol in full time education. The resident parent can't claim child benefit in this situation either.

WYSPECIAL

If he didn't continue in FTE it should have stopped September 2015