To claim 16 years of child maintenance now my child is an adult

[sleepybarnowl]

I have never received a penny from my son's father who left when he was 2.
He took him out every Saturday through his childhood and I'll be honest I had him at 17 and didn't know I could legally claim money from him and whenever I asked for money he said he was skint so we struggled on.
He's 21 now and I brought him up alone from 2 until he moved out at 18.
Is it too late to claim all that money that I didn't receive?

Yes it's too late.

They only backdate to the time you put in the claim from.

Yes it is a bit late plus if you got any only your son would get it.

No you can't. If you have never opened up a claim you can't claim retrospectively.

You can't.

If your son is only 21, you must have known about child support before now?

No, you will have needed to do it when he was a child.

Much too late.

I thought that might be the case. I'm trying to put some money by for a house deposit for him so he can stop renting and he suggested his dad owed me money for the last 16 years.

I was going to say this. You may not of known at 17 but surely you’ve heard of child maintenance before now at some point.

As he is 21 can he not ask his own dad for some money to help?

Perfectly moral for him to suggest this to his dad! But no way to force it.

I can’t believe nobody even mentioned it to you over the years..