My xh has stopped paying maintenance early (in my view). Am I right?

[fluschmoo]

My daughter was 18 at the end of April. She is just finishing her 'A' levels at the moment and is then off to uni in September/October. Her dad has just cancelled his maintenance payments at the beginning of June so his last payment was beginning of May.

I thought that she was still classed as being in full-time education until she goes to uni. Is this right? I have asked him to continue paying until September but he won't. I am still receiving tax credits for her so should I still be receiving maintenance payments?

I would be very grateful for any advice on this one.

Technically you are correct.

www.csa.gov.uk/en/case/leaving-education.asp

Even though your daughter has technically left full time education, from a child benefit point of view, you will receive money until September and therefore your child maintenance should also continue.

That said, given there's only a few months to go, i don't rate your chances at getting the CSA interested. By the time they start to get their backside into gear, your DD will be at uni.

Perhaps instead you can suggest to her dad that he gives the maintenance payments he otherwise would give you, directly to DD instead and she can put it to one side for use whilst at uni? It might be a suitable compromise.

The consent order wording is usually until 18th birthday or completion of full time secondary education WHICHEVER IS THE LATER, so it shouldn't have stopped until her last A level exam.

Did you have an order?

Thanks Niceguy. I thought so too. I will put this to him but he is already being really horrible about it.

Mumblechum, there is no consent order so does that make a difference?

Usually maintenance is paid if child benefit is paid so I guess you are still in receipt of that?

I know it's frustrating but the suggestion to give to your dd directly is positive and I guess you had planned for the maintenance to stop in a few months anyway.

Yes he's in the wrong.

But there's nothing you can do about it.

Sorry.

You could ask him to pay it directly to his DD and he mgiht do, but if he wants to be a shit about it, no one's going to stop him.

How amazingly petty. For the sake of 3 months... what is wrong with these people? It's like they really resent supporting their kids.

You are technically correct.
Is your daughter planning to do summer work? - just wondering if this has influenced his decision? Also maybe he is planning to contribute towards her university eduction?
How much were the monthly payments before?

Allnew, dd has a summer job but only one or two shifts a week. He is not planning to contribute to her uni education as far as I am aware. The monthly payments are £350 (he is very very well paid!). Dd is going on her last school trip abroad in a few weeks time and now I can't pay for the rest of it (most of it is paid from her money and the school trip is relevant to what she will do at uni). Just don't get why he has to be such a twat at this last moment. Didn't even give me any notice so that has caused problems too. I have texted him offering various solutions but had not reply. Grrrrr!

Do you have a fairly bad relationship generally?
Agree it is a pain that no notice!

Not really a bad relationship - don't really have much to do with each other so a bit of a mystery. I will sit back and wait to see what he does now but need to sort the account out and change the couple of direct debits that come out of it (dd's phone etc).

Is your agreement through the CSA or privately?

Have you told him the money was ear marked for her school trip, and that she is technically still in education and point to the fact she is going on a school trip to back that up? Perhaps she/you could ask him to pay towards the school trip if nothing else now (understand you may not want her to get involved with money issues but she is 18 and should be old enough to understand).

A guy I used to work with did this - stopped his payments when his dd finished her last exam and moaned that the CSA told him he had to keep paying till september even though she had a part time job. As it was with teh CSA he had to keep paying.

I can see why he feels he shouldn't have to pay any more, and your ex probably feels similar. But the law is until the end of the school year (which includes the august holidays).

If your arrangement is private you can only appeal to his better nature, or put in a claim to the CSA now I suppose and they will back date it to the day you contact them. He may pay up to avoid the hassle. Or it may make things even worse between you.