Backdated child maintenance - can this be chased?

beckles88

I'm looking for some advice please. In this instance, the child changed primary residence last year to live with parent A, parent A had always paid maintenance. Maintenance was discussed but parent B never started paying. A court case occurred a few months later and it was decided the child should mainly live with parent A. Parent A then calculated the maintenance due and reached out to Parent B to request payment. Parent B refused and CMA had to be contacted, CMA put an agreement in place for Parent B to pay maintenance going forward. Parent B missed the first payment so going forward maintenance will be deducted from their pay.

In terms of the past maintenance (from child moving in with Parent A until child maintenance payments started), Parent B has stated they will not pay this and that Parent A will have to go to court to claim the past maintenance. My question would be, can this past maintenance be followed up through court? If so what would be the best process, all amounts, dates, etc are documented.

Clearchem

It would only be recoverable from the date on which parent A approached the cms I believe.

Logically there is no past maintenance to be verified then enforced by a court before a cms application ie the indication that any private arrangements or discussion were at an end

JJWSJS8700

beckles88 said:

I'm looking for some advice please. In this instance, the child changed primary residence last year to live with parent A, parent A had always paid maintenance. Maintenance was discussed but parent B never started paying. A court case occurred a few months later and it was decided the child should mainly live with parent A. Parent A then calculated the maintenance due and reached out to Parent B to request payment. Parent B refused and CMA had to be contacted, CMA put an agreement in place for Parent B to pay maintenance going forward. Parent B missed the first payment so going forward maintenance will be deducted from their pay.

In terms of the past maintenance (from child moving in with Parent A until child maintenance payments started), Parent B has stated they will not pay this and that Parent A will have to go to court to claim the past maintenance. My question would be, can this past maintenance be followed up through court? If so what would be the best process, all amounts, dates, etc are documented.

If the child maintenance order was made through the courts, they can get the court to chase for arrears.

MEBC
Bury St Edmunds is the office.