"Tertiary Education" in a Financial Final Order causing confusion

s@sha

Hello there,
My ex husband and I have a Final Financial Order which was agreed by the court in 2013. Part of the Order states that my ex husband must make payments to me "for the benefit of the child of the family (child's name here) DOB (here) until he shall attain the age of 18 years, or cease full time tertiary education, whichever shall be the later, or further Order, at the rate of xxx per month"


Now, our child has just finished A levels, will be 19 in September and is starting a degree course in October. My Ex-husband is maintaining that he doesn't have to pay this money anymore because he says Tertiary education for the purposes of child support is A level education and equivalent, not degree level. I disagreed with him on this, after I'd done some online research, and this has now led to him seeing a solicitor who appears to agree with him.

He's asked them to write up an account of what was discussed, which he's given me today, and in it they say "At the consultation you raised a concern that your ex wife has told you that child maintenance payments will continue during his university education. The order stated "Tertiary education" which is of course sixth form education, i.e. A levels or their equivalent."
They also say "The Gov website specifically states that child maintenance stops if a child starts studying an 'Advanced' course, such as a university degree or BTEC HNC...therefore, as you will recall we advised you that when (child) starts university you are not obliged to pay child maintenance as his mother will not be "maintaining the child" as it were".

I still don't think this is correct. Everything I've read on divorce forums, websites etc says that Tertiary education is degree level. Also, if this is a Final Consent Order approved by the county court, how does the GOV website even come into it? We didn't arrange the child maintenance through them, this is our own arrangement, approved by the court. I don't even know what Gov website they are talking about. I presume they are referring to the Child Maintenance Service, which I didn't even know existed until today. I can't see why their rules have anything to do with our arrangement since we never used them or the CSA or any government service to make our arrangements.

I realise i'm probably going to end up having to see a solicitor myself to sort this, but since I no longer work due to long -term illness and disability, I am living on universal credit and PIP, so I'd really appreciate it if someone could give me an idea if I'm barking up the wrong tree here, before I go down such an expensive (for me) route. I cannot afford to pay hundreds of pounds to a solicitor just to be told exactly the same thing.

Edited to add that our child will still be living with me during the university holidays. They will only be at uni for three terms of 8 weeks, therefore I will still have to "maintain" them" for half the year. Ex-husband doesn't seem to think this matters.

Spendless

Im no expert but tertiary as I understand it means third. I would say you are correct and education/schooling is 
Primary (1st school)
Secondary (up to and inc A levels/level 3 qualification)
Tertiary would then be higher than A levels such as degree.

In a lot of cases CM stops after A level education  so I wonder if whoever drew up the order also misunderstood and also thought the term meant end of A levels.

Hopefully someone will answer with further insight. 

theoretica

I agree that it is perhaps a poorly drawn up order - A levels are tertiary education, so are PhDs.  So, yes, it says he should continue to pay, but if he went to court it seems likely that it would be changed.

s@sha

Thank you both. I agree re the order being poorly drawn up-I have already had to consult a solicitor regarding other aspects of it, which has already cost me £400. We have a Mesher order, the solicitor said they're not even used these days. Unfortunately, at the time I assumed, as you would, that my divorce solicitor was giving me good advice so I went with his suggestions, now I am belatedly finding out that not all of the advice was suitable for someone in my particular situation! 

Keep_pedalling

The other issue that might impact his ability to pay would be that he will also be expected to contribute to your child’s uni fees.

s@sha

He isn't expected to contribute to uni fees. Student Finance makes the assessment based on my household income, because child lives with me. So he won't be contributing anything once child maintenance stops.

Spendless

I found this which sheds further light. This says Secondary education is up to 16 eg yr11/gCSESs. 

Tertiary education  is post 16 education which includes A levels (or equiv)  and  degree so both further and higher education which is what a reply earlier also said.  Still think the document was drawn up by someone who didn't understand and thought it meant end of A levels, but that isn't your problem.

https://thinkstudent.co.uk/what-is-tertiary-education-in-the-uk/

Agree that your ex wouldn't need to contribute to any Uni fees as your son would receive student loans (the reason why most orders don't include CM after A levels) 
  

LightFlare

Def one for the professionals.

Tertiary is an almost unused/outdated term nowadays within education  - primary,secondary,higher and further are the more modern classifications.

It could be argued that Tertiary as per its definition of 3rd ends at Higher and doesnt include Further

Spendless

s@sha said:

Edited to add that our child will still be living with me during the university holidays. They will only be at uni for three terms of 8 weeks, therefore I will still have to "maintain" them" for half the year. Ex-husband doesn't seem to think this matters.

Returning to this bit though. Will your child receive the full maintenance  loan?  Assuming they will and there's no (Government) expectation of you to top up their loan then your child will need to contribute to the household bills outside of term time. Some bills will stay static regardless eg rent/mortgage, you can still get  25% off CT if there's only you as an adult in the house. The bills that will/are likely to increase are grocery shopping, utility bills such as electricity and gas, water if you are on a meter and petrol, wear and tear on a car if you are giving lifts/they're borrowing the car. You son will need to contribute during the time spent with you either from their loan or by working outside of studies