Child Maintenance and Older Child University Payments

[Chaosx3]

My husband and I are in the process of separating. We have one child in first year of Uni plus 2 others age 17 and 13. According to the Gov Calculator my ex should pay me £565 a month for the younger children - however there is also the money we have to contribute as our part of the older ones University living Payment. This is £400 a month and doesn’t change when we split. Plus we run a car for the older ones as we live in the middle of nowhere. I want to be really fair and don’t feel I can take child maintenance plus expect him to pay towards the Uni fees!! We earn roughly similar amounts. Does anyone have any advice on how to factor Uni payments into child maintenance arrangements please....

If you are not receiving any maintenance for the older child I think half of the uni fees is fair. Child maintenance never covers all of the expenses so your younger two would be missing out. Maintenance will also stop when the 17year old turns 18 so I think you need all the money you can get. Good luck!

You still have to maintain your children at university although the maintenance can go directly to them. No reason this should stop

I pay the cm from both of us into a separate account and spend that on the kids. That way it is very clear it goes on them. Once mine start uni we will pay our contributions separately direct to them.

Once the split is sorted can you not apply to have the uni maintenance reassessed based on resident parent? My son wanted to do this and say he was living with me despite having only visited once in the previous year "because your wages are rubbish". I may have told him he had to at least make it look plausible if anyone checked..

As Otter says your older child can change their uni maintenance based on whichever of you has the lowest income. This will reduce the parental contribution.

Then he or she can ask both of you to contribute to their university education in the way he or she wants. I would be led by them on how much they want you to be involved with this. Of course as parents you can push back on expectations in a reasonable way. Whether you are collective or individual about this would be up to you both.

Mixing it up with the Child maintenance arrangements and your expectations probably muddies the waters for your oldest. It’s a separate arrangement with his or her father.

I am in same situation as you but I’m in Scotland, stbex was paying accommodation at £350 but have given that up as she’s home due to covid, this was in March, he’s now paying nothing and I can’t see her being back in student accommodation in near future. Solicitor has written and asked re contributions but he just ignores!

Is your eldest living at home? What does the £400 constitute of?

Thanks for the comments and advice. The £400 pays her accommodation - she moves into private accommodation from September and wants to return to Uni even if lectures are online (she studies a subject with a practical element and so this may restart face to face anyway). The financial implications of separation are just so huge.... quite daunting even though it’s definitely the right thing to do