Child Maintenance

markprior

Hi All

some quick background, my son turned 16 last month and is looking to get into either an apprenticeship or traineeship (nightmare as he does not know exam results yet which would determine which he is eligible for) anyway, i assume reading the bumf that if he goes into an apprenticeship that i can stop my child maintenance to his mother? (regardless of this i will be putting the money aside for a car for when he turns 17, so the money isnt the motivation for the question)

If he goes for a traineeship the plan was to send him the money each month as all he will receive from this is £30 a week or so for travel expensis. However if he goes this route his mother insists that she is still entitled to maintenance payments, reading up its a little grey here so i would like some advice.

In all honesty i would much rather give him the money so it feels like he is working for something and he then just arranges small board payment with mam.

13Kent

It all depends on if Child Benefit is being paid. Some training courses still count as education therefore Child Benefit is still payable therefore maintenance is still payable. Even if he doesn't immediately start a course but has signed up to something like connexions and the PWC has requested an extention of Child Benefit then maintenance is still payable as child benefit is still payable. The best way is to request a Child Benefit check from the CMS and go from there.

As you can see from the link below some apprenticeships are still "approved training" and eligible for child benefit, and therefore maintenance is still needed.

https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit-16-19

Sambella

What you would need to look at is who is providing the training/apprentenship and find out if they come under the ‘approved’ umbrella.

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/child-benefit-technical-manual/cbtm07024

markprior

Thanks all, it seems a real struggle to get official information as its full of if's, maybe, some, but's ..... arrrgh