how long do you pay child maintenance for?

[griffintribe]

does itstop when child reaches 16 or when they leave full time education and so would be after university?

Until a child leaves school - ie at 16 or 18/19 if they do further study at school such as A levels.
There is no obligation to pay maintenance for a child at university.

aloha is that right? Does it become an independent matter between the Paying parent and child after 18 if they want support through college?

just interested as have seen it contested otherwise (ie that one party wants CM to continue as they want right to pay child going to university)

If CSA I THINK its until age 17

Otherwise it depends on what was agreed at the time of the divorce/separation.

It can stop after school, college, university, or whatever is agreed between the parties.

Agree with Aloha.

My dad (voluntarily) paid the maintenance to me while I was at uni, so that I didn't have to get a student loan. (But in fact I got a loan and saved the money towards a house deposit - worked very well). But he didn't have to do this - it was his idea.

Just to clarify, if there is a Court Order setting out maintenance that says it should continue until the end of University education, then there IS an obligation to pay - but only if there is a Court Order.

WEll, after the child leaves school s/he and if s/he goes to university s/he can apply to the court for maintenance for themslves. this might be granted.
The CSA's involvement stops at 18/19

My parents couldn't afford to give me money when I was at university - I had a grant though. It's so different now.

I was told that child maintenance continues whilst they are in full-time education - which included university. I don't have this in writing but I am not anticipating my dd's maintenance finishing in 9 or 11 years time if she goes onto HE.

That said, university students can probably claim maintenance from their parents anyway under LEA rules for parental support unless this changes anytime soon .

Just got divorced and my exH has agreed maintenence "to end of 1st degree" for DD1 and DD2 (wording at suggestion of my solicitor) and lifelong maintenence for DD3, who has severe learning difficulties.

I'm not totally sure about this, but although your parents' income is taken into account when calculating your student loan (unless you are classed as 'supporting yourself') I don't think a student normally has a right to maintenance from their parents.
If your parents are divorced, only the household income of the parent you live with counts, but this includes a partner's (of either sex0 income

I meant the compulsory element that the LEA states that the parents are liable to pay for supporting their children at university when calculating student support - not the over-and-above amount financial support many parents give voluntarily. I'm not sure that it's actually enforcable though if the parents refuse to pay up to their children?

For myself my dd's maintenance is paid via the CSA so it'll be interesting to see what transpires when she's approaching HE age.

Poor sentence structure there but I think it makes some sense .

That's what I meant, bookwormmum - you are only automatically entitled to 75% of the maintenance loan, the rest depends on parents' income. DS has a 75% loan, and we are topping it up, but but as far as I can discover, we don't actually have to pay a penny.
The loan for fees is different, that's not income assessed.

I know that child benefit is only payable beyond 19 if the child is in further education (some colleges) as opposed to higher education (university) - I don't know if this distinction applies to maintenance.