Should I stop paying maintenance?

[Fugazi9]

My ex and I have a non-court arranged maintenance agreement. My children are now 21 and almost 19. Eldest at uni and the youngest is due to start this year. I'm still making my regular monthly payments to the ex. However, aside from the gentle pressure I'm receiving from my partner, I think I should now stop paying the ex. As far as I can work out, if we'd gone through the CSA as it was, my payments would have stopped. I don't think I'm out of order to stop giving her money. If (when!) they need it I think I should send any funds to the kids directly.
I'd welcome any comments.

If your children are in full time education you should continue to support them. When I went to uni my dad started paying the maintenance direct to me.
During the holidays i would live with my mum and I world give her the money that dad gave me.

I'd be giving it directly to them at that age.

Goes straight to the children once they start uni.

Straight to the children now.

You’re children still need financial support whilst at uni, but pay it directly to them.

*your

Paid to kids directly.

You should stop giving it to your ex and give it straight to your children.

Stop the cheque

Yup, I agree with the rest.

Make a genuinely usefully sized contribution directly to your children.

Yep, time to help the kids with uni.

Pay directly to the kids

Is your ex maintaining the family home for them to live in outside of term time?

Straight to the kids but keep proof

Where do the children live in term time? In holidays? Where are all their things? You should support their reasonable living for being young students; this might mean paying your ex. It might mean paying your dc and explaining they should pay x per week to their mum when living there to contribute.

My parents put it in their financial settlement that while at uni my dad would make direct payments to the kids.

Hold on, one child is still at home! Keep paying until he goes off to uni. If in the UK that’s still 6 months away!

My children's father stopped paying the week each went to uni. Refused to pay anything to them for support at uni and they were forced to take out maximum (effectively double) student maintenance as my salary alone was classed as a low income (he earns around £80,000 and has no other children). They will leave uni with significantly higher debts than they would if he supported them. I think it's very responsible of you to keep paying as this more accurately reflects what would have happened if the family were still together. Paying them directly is definitely an option. Bear in mind the university years can be hard on the resident parent though. There's no legal obligation on the NRP to pay maintenance, yet a home still needs to be maintained for the young person. Food, heating and transport needs to be paid for in the holidays etc - or even longer if they have periods of study at home due to lockdown. Depending on circumstances, I think paying half or two thirds to the student and half or a third to the RP, for continuing to provide a home, would be a fairer split.

Don’t they still spend breaks at home with mom? If so, she really can’t downsize yet. I would be giving money toward education and continue maintenance. You should have a conversation instead of anything unilateral.