Does child maintenance stop once DC have finished Alevels or continue if they go to Uni?

[hulahoopsilove]

Im confused the government site says
"Child maintenance payments usually stop when the child reaches 16 (or 20 if theyre in full-time education not higher than A-level or equivalent)"

DSD is 18 in March having taken AL's last 2 years...we assumed maintenance would stop at 18 - she is going to Uni next year for 2 years does child maintence continue till she is out of education?

It's done as a private agreement between DH and his ex

But the majority of A-level students take their exams in June, and obviously don't go back to school after that, so I'm not sure why maintenance would need to be paid til September? That's almost 3 months after they've left school?

Ds's goes up until he's 17 (he's 15 now), no mention of it ending if he leaves school at 16, but I was told by the court officer here that I'd be notified before it ends so that I can apply to extend it. In the country where his father lives, child maintenance is paid whilst the child is at university, so 21. I just need to give the court here the details and they will extend it until when ds leaves university. I haven't told his father this yet.

Oh, sorry, this isn't 21, it's 23 providing a child is in full time education. Thank you, Ireland!!

But the majority of A-level students take their exams in June, and obviously don't go back to school after that, so I'm not sure why maintenance would need to be paid til September? That's almost 3 months after they've left school?

Child Benefit is paid till the 1st of September. I am guessing it's because that's when the new school year starts and the expectation that the young person in question either enters work or goes to university when they will be eligible for other funding.

But whether you're in Ireland, or anywhere else for that matter, is a 23yr old a child that needs to be provided for??????

I'm in the UK. Ds wants to do a degree, then a bar practice course, then he'll have pupilage after which doesn't pay a great deal, so I'll happily support him for as long as it takes for him to get on his feet. I can't say his father will be so willing though.

It's fine if you can afford it ........

well I need to talk to DH about this because there is not way we can continue to pay this for another few years of Uni life

Also we have a DD who will be going into secondary education DH has always paid maintenenace for both DSD's (2) has never been a problem but now Im thinking the money should now go towards our DD as we currently dont save a penny for her due to his maintenance

Hula all parents support their dc at uni , loans are reduced due to parental income.

Assuming (and fingers crossed) the private arrangement states that maintenance will cease at the end of A levels, you won't be obliged to pay any more unless you chose to. I suppose the difficulty arises if your DH wants to do one thing, and you want to do something else.

I've never had a problem with us paying DSS's uni accommodation, but once he's finished his degree, we won't be paying any more. If he decides to do a Masters course then he'll need to self fund!

Does your dh save for his older girls and not for his youngest daughter? The child maintenance isn't saving for the older ones - it's paying a proportion of the costs of raising the children. Those costs tend to carry on during time at university, and as previous posters have said, the amount of loan the daughters can take out depends on parental income. I believe that's both parents.

Hula all parents support their dc at uni

SoonToBeSix I don't want to contradict you but surely that's only the case if parents can afford to?

Any assessment for student finance is based on the household where the student is living, so if a student has separated parents, it’s far better for the student to say they’re living at the household with the lowest income.

Parents are expected to contribute to a student's upkeep if they can afford to do so - that's why student loans and grants are means tested. But they're not legally obliged to (as they are with paying child support).

But if you have a private agreement - drawn up as a court order - it can say whatever you both agreed to at the time. My DH's says he'll stop "at age 18 or the end of full time education" (it's rather vague on which of these... ) But he remembers having to fight against being obliged to pay his ex right up to age 21. He's always said he intends to pay his DCs direct - but had to challenge a request to do this via their mother (who may or may not pass on the money to the DCs - there's no legal obligation on her to do so).

His ex now wants him to pay her too, on the grounds that she has to feed them during the holidays She's made it quite clear that she isn't going to pay them a penny of her own earnings to live off, but still thinks she should be paid for having them to stay in the holidays.

purpleroses My university 'holidays' lasted nearly five months! I was subbed equally by both patents if I needed it during this time. It would have been unfair to expect just my mother to sub me.

Mostly I worked during summer and Easter, anyway, away from home.

linerunner I would expect our DSC to spend at least half their university holidays with us - as they currently spend at least half of their school holidays with us. And yes I'd expect they - like you - would probably be off away working or travelling quite a bit of the time.

So we'll be feeding them at least half the time they're around. And contributing 100% of the financial support they get. But then DH is supposed to ALSO pay his ex money on top of all this to cover any food they eat at her house? Can she not feed her own DC for a few weeks of the year without expecting someone else to pay for it?

Parents are expected to contribute to a student’s upkeep if they afford to, but they’re not legally obliged to.

Yes, that’s it in a nutshell.

Purpleroses, despite us paying £137 per week for DSS’s uni accommodation, the ex still moans that she has to feed DSS during the school holidays. DSS usually works during the holidays, so there’s no reason why he couldn’t pay a percentage of his wages to his mother, but that’s between the two of them. But there’s no way we can pay uni accommodation AND maintenance!!!! The ex doesn’t pay a single penny towards DSS at Uni, she seems to think that any financial support is solely down to DH.

Your set up sounds fair, yes. Half and half.

Can she not feed her own child for a few weeks of the year without expecting someone else to pay for it?

Quite. When DH argues that he pays out quite a lot already for DSS, the ex complains that she doesn't see any of it - but why should she???? She really would be quite happy for us to pay all the accommodation fees, and his holiday period food bills too .......

Sorry that was to purpleroses - half and half seems fair.

Petal - that sounds horribly like the line that DH's ex seems to want to take. DH does earn more than her, so I think it's quite fair that he pays more than her towards their upkeep - but to pay nothing, not a penny, and then also expect to be paid for feeding them when they visit in the holidays. Will she still be doing that when they're 35 and back to visit with their families? Expecting DH to cover her food bills? DH has told her she can charge then board if she wants but she says "oh no, I could never do that!" - as if she's too kind and generous to charge her own children (as long as that generous position is funded by someone else of course....) Makes me quite cross! Though thankfully DH has no intention of paying her direct once they're at Uni, so she can just moan about it.

The other laughable thing about the ex, is that she tries to convince DSS that SHE gives him his student loan maintenance grant of approx £1700 per term (he gets this from the state following an assessment of the ex's household income).

However DSS isn't daft, he's fully aware this amount does NOT come from his mother's pocket, just because her finances were used to make the assessment .......

When DSD turned 18 we stopped giving the maintenance to her mum and gave it direct to DSD to help her through uni.

That's the maximum grant, isn't it? Is it meant to be for term time only or run into vacation time? My DD is just finishing her first term, btw, so quite interested.