Child Maintenance

COTY09

Hi All

I have been paying Child maintenance for over 15 years and my son is now 20.  On my divorce papers it states to pay maintenance during education.
My ex-wife is ruining my sons life and sending him to college purely for the maintenance payments as he has been on multiple courses not really gaining anything academically.
Gov web site states i should pay up to my child's 20th Birthday, am i entitled to stop paying maintenance now or do i have to continue paying? She uses the money to gamble and i can no longer feed this addiction

Penguin_

My understanding is if they go to college it can go to the 20th Birthday however I would contact the Child Maintenace team to confirm.

tacpot12

It will depend on exactly what is says on the court order. Can you post the phrase that is uses here? 

We just need to see what is says about when maintenance payments can end. 

It seems like there is an opportunity for you to encourage (bribe) your son to start seeking work in exchange for some financial support that you pay directly to him and not his mother.

If you are required to pay maintenance while he is in any form of education, and you don't pay, your ex-wife would have to go back to the court to or to the Child Maintenance Service to get you to pay, and the CMS won't get involved because of your son's age, which leaves the court. If you son guarantees to tell the court that he is no longer willing to attend college, they should conclude that his education has ended. 

byebyedebt

The govt website is refering to the fact that cases with the Child Maintenance Service can go on to the 20th birthday in some circumstances.

But you have a court order, and your case is not with the CMS, so that does not apply.  The court order does.  Any court order over 12 months can be nullified by going to the CMS and opening a case.  But you cant do that.

Incidently education in CMS cases, does not include university, so if you were a CMS case, it would have stopped when the child went to university,