Maintenance Payments Ending

They are adults. You are not legally obligated to provide for them and neither is he. If they want his financial support, they can communicate directly with him.

Surely they can get student loans and jobs like most students do. They’ll be 18, they should talk to their dad about anything else.

As your ex has presumably borne the lion's share of the costs up to now, it's fair enough that they should reduce at this point.

I think it also depends upon how good your relationship has been. If you are on friendly terms you could ask but if not then the 18 yr olds will need to ask.

You can certainly ask, he should really be giving money to them directly as they are officially adults.
Parents do continue to support young adult DC especially when they are in uni, in fact the student maintenance loan is based on parents earnings and therefore expects parent contributions.
So as a parent I think it's fair to support your DC as much as you are financially able to, and if he can afford more than I think it's fair to contribute more, for example funding driving lessons.

What will their student maintainance loan look like? Is it based on your earnings if they mainly live with you? Work out how much they need live on during term time (usually at least the amount of max student loan but often more depending on housing cost)
And how much they need to live on out of uni term which is about a third of the year! Where will they live during this time?

Of course, sorry. That’s right. In that case OP, he doesn’t even need to pay CMS levels. So you can’t make him pay anything at all.

What has he agreed to so far regarding their uni expenses?

He doesn't need to pay maintenance whilst they are at uni only if they are still doing level three course, s etc up to 20.

So you are working full time, at the highest rate you can?

Your difference in salary doesn’t come into it I’m afraid.

Up to 20, you can still claim maintenance through CMS if they are in education. But he only has to pay the CMS amount. You can’t make him pay any more than that.

If the kids need support through uni then they have to speak to him to find out what he will give. You may have already sorted this and he has already agreed to 50/50 but if not, and you’re just assuming that’s how it works then you need to know that it’s not. There is no mechanism to make him pay any more than the CMS minimum.

@eatreadsleeprepeat yep it's July already...

@Hula0565890 hope he agrees to help with uni, they need to breach it with him. Are they close to him? He's never spoken to them about uni before?

This is where it stops being in any way related to the separation and court order and becomes about any two parents supporting their children through university. Also any money would stop coming to you and be between the children and each parent to sort. Would have thought this would have needed to be sorted before now so that your children knew if they were going to be supported through university and how much they would have so they could make informed choices about university and accommodation selection. Legal position varies a bit between the home nations.

You can’t even make him pay 50/50. He only has to pay what CMS says, and that’s only up to age 20 if they stay in education.

The kids will need to speak to him themselves about getting financial help through uni, but he doesn’t need to pay any extra to you. He can pay directly to them. If he says no though, there is nothing you can do.

You can ask, but don’t expect.
i have paid both mine through uni single-handedly.
he didn’t even give them the odd tenner

It also took him til his youngest was 23 to finish paying back the arrears he owed me.

This was my understanding. At uni my housemate’s Dad was very highly paid, but her Mum and Dad had divorced and she was living with her Mum - and her Mum didn’t work. This meant she received all the bursaries and grants available, plus her Dad paid all her uni fees + accommodation and gave her a £1,000 a month. We all worked weekend and summer jobs, whilst she had a very easy time financially with her grants, bursaries and the money from her Dad. Therefore, it may be the case that your children are better off than their peers.

they are adults, they can get jobs and student loans like everyone else

You can ask; you know him so you know what response to expect. It's likely he'd want to give it to them directly if he does.

My parents put income proportional support for me during university into their divorce agreement. They weren’t always the best parents, but they valued education and did the right thing in that regard.

I would suggest to your ex that you set up direct payments to your children as long as they are attending university and remaining in good academic standing. That will likely be easier mentally than a payment that goes through a parent.

Would any funds not go to the DC at that point? That is what I am expecting

If they are down as living with you and you don’t have a partner living with you then if your on a fairly low wage / average they will get full help for maintenance fees / Loans

you could ask your ex to top them up directly if this is the case

Maybe you could suggest he pays an allowance direct to each of the kids?

What have you done/are doing to increase your income to be able to contribute a fair share of costs to support the children?

Surely you will give them an amount you can afford and he will give an amount he chooses. If it’s not enough they will need to get jobs.

I mean in a sense neither of you has to support them when they’re over 18. Hopefully you both will because you love them!

Hopefully your relationship is Ok enough that you can have an adult conversation about it - I know having a court order doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t.

I guess if there’s any kind of “default” to those conversations- bearing in mind the DC are adults - then it’s 50:50 but it doesn’t have to be. All you can do is ask, and all he can do is hopefully give a reasonable response.

It’s difficult for posters to comment on the likelihood of him agreeing as no one knows what each of you is like, or the history between you.

People often say they ‘earn’ benefits.
This has been covered already.