Apprenticeships and also changing from private arrangement to CMS

flakey_2

Good evening helpful people in my computer, i wonder if you could offer us some guidance please.

My partner pays maintenance via a private arrangement to his ex wife for their daughter. Their daughter is almost 18 and we're not entirely sure what her education situation is as there isn't any contact now. The last his ex wife told us was that their daughter was staying in college until May 2022 and may then be taking an apprenticeship after that, but since that message a couple of months ago it seems the ex wife has chosen to block messages from my partner, so despite him asking for an update, he's getting no response. He believes it may be the case that she knows shes not entitled to maintenance going forward but is trying to be awkward to keep it going, but we just dont know. I have suggested he write to her (sending it recorded delivery) explaining that he has messaged her asking for an update and that he can only assume the information she gave in her last message still stands and therefore he will be stopping the private arrangement unless she responds and provides proof of what their daughter is doing regarding education.

Firstly does anybody have any further advice or guidance on this please?

Secondly, should his ex wife choose to approach the CMS if she thinks she is still entitled to maintenance from him, can they go back in time and relook at his finances and demand he should have paid more to her up to this point, or will they only do a calculation from the time she submits her claim to the CMS?

flakey_2

Apologies, i meant to say thank you in advance x

ZaSa1418

As she has not responded and the last communication was daughter was starting apprenticeship when she left college in May 2022 I would stop maintenance. If she then does contact your OH he can ask her again and see what she says.

CMS would not be backdated, it would be from the date she contacted the CMS

flakey_2

Thank you for your response @ZaSa1418 , its appreciated. I agree with you, i think he should be allowed to know what his daughter is up to when it effects him financially. But sadly his ex wife likes to play games and cause issues when there no need to, hence why we want to do everything correctly

RAS

Check, because a child is normally considered to be in education until 30th August in the year they leave school and mum would still be entitled to Child Benefit until that date.

If she's still entitled to CB, she can claim through CMS.