Child maintenance

[Milkand2sugarsplease]

What happens when a child reaches the end of school? Does the parent have to declare to child maintenance what their child is going on to do or is it just assumed they will remain in education unless the parent advises otherwise?

I assume it's linked in with Child Benefit entitlement. Child Benefit review every time a relevant age is reached and it's an offence not to declare if a child drops out of education in between reviews.

This is our worry. We don't think said parent would declare if child was out of education and the only information we can find is that child maintenance so random checks but that they rely on the receiving parent to be honest.

Said parent has a history of dishonesty and outright lies in court so we doubt they'll be honest about this - but that could cost us up to £16k in total if they don't be honest and declare.

I should add, we are more than happy to pay CM for as long as we have to, that's not the issue but the parent in question has behaved disgustingly in court, has been berated by the judge on several occasions and we don't want to be paying her more than she's entitled to because of her behaviour.

You're not paying her for her entitlement though, you're paying to support your child. How completely and utterly horrible that you can't wait to not have to pay a penny.

That's not it at all, please don't say that. It was a genuine question because we don't trust her to be honest. We are happy to pay for as long as needed for the children - more than happy, and happy to continue supporting the children beyond that time. We're not happy having to pay her if she's not entitled to it and is being dishonest to CM in order to keep receiving it.

The lies she has told in court and allegations she has made, and been found to be lying by the judge in family court tell us she will have no qualms in lying about what the children are doing beyond school/education in order to keep getting CM for her own benefit when actually she's not entitled to it - but if you'd like to give someone that tries to ruin your life an extra 16k that they're entitled to, you're a better person than me.

*not entitled to

Unfortunately you do have to rely on her to be honest (and CB always tend to just take the word of people - we had to prove DSS lived with us when his mum lied to CB office and told them he still lived with her!) However if you can't I'd maybe do some detective work of your own (presuming you're not in contact with the child?) And speak to them yourself and then report it to child maintenance if the child is in fact not in education. Although they are supposed to stay on until 18 now.