A child maintenance question

[honeyroar]

At what age does a father stop paying child maintenance?

I spoke to the CMS recently about this and the rules have changed if you use them - I don't think you do. They say it used to be 19, but now 20 in certain circumstances.

The father in our case (I am a gp carer) has used the new rules to his advantage. The order states eow contact, but it is at his parents because of his violent behaviour. He is now saying he stays there overnight so has shared care making a mockery of the order. Our gs is 14 and says his dad never stays there, but I have decided to suck up the reduction because although it may be morally wrong, it is simply not worth the aggro.

The CMS cannot differentiate between the RP who is ordered to make the child available for contact and a father who can choose whether to attend.

Difficult one this as there is the legal position and the moral one.

Once your DSS goes to uni any contribution you make is voluntary - I would make it direct to him if you do decide to pay and tell him he is welcome to stay with you in the holidays.

I do think there is a flaw in the current system when they go to uni they need room and board in the holidays, usually the RP ends up providing this as well as often struggling to make the contributions they are supposed to. Bit rubbish really!

The amount of student loan available is based on the RP income, (yeah I know, now the grants for lower income households have been removed they are allowed to borrow more ) so it does make some sense in theory, but in reality usually the costs far outweigh the official loans anyway.

And I guess, again in theory the students are expected to be working and earning in their holidays.

Payments can stop. But speaking for myself ... I am still helping my DC's long after education finished. Maybe help them directly rather than through their mother?

Also uni is expensive so any financial help would be appreciated by DCs. I know they can work (mine did) but 3rd year can be difficult so she gave up her job and we helped more financially.

Thanks all.

For the record, we fully intend to support him as much as possible while he's at uni. We would help him now if he really needed it, for example if he'd been trying to get a job and couldn't and was struggling. I just want him to try to do things for himself more.

This thread was to help decide how to reply to the ex who rang to ask for "what she is owed", when we didn't think we did legally owe. We won't leave him stuck, but I think the days of being told what to do by her have ended.