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

A person might be23 when they finish university study but you cannot really consider them to be a child. Somebody could go to university at the age of 50 and do an undergraduate degree but it still wouldn't make them a child. Quite laughable to think that being in continuous education means that somebody never moves into adulthood. So somebody who repeats A levels 3 times and then starts various undergraduate degrees but never completes any is still a child? Ridiculous!

Maybe they are saying they are still dependent upon their parents rather than a child? My father used to send me food parcels when I was at Uni, so in a way I was still dependent. A student isn't quite on their feet yet.

Yes, the student finance calculation considers students under the age of 25 to be financially dependent unless they have lived away from their parents for at least a year or can prove that they have been financially independent for at least a year (due to working, having own money and paying own bills within the family household). But they are not children and they have no entitlement to child benefit or child tax credits and therefore no entitlement to receive child maintenance from NRPs. Student finance and child maintenance are very separate issues because a student over the age of 18 is not considered to be a child (in the UK). I find Ireland's system rather bizarre but then I find lots of financial stuff in Ireland very bizarre and am not surprised that the country had serious financial problems.

SOOOOOOOOOOOO...getting back to my original and thank you for all your comments, advice etc...

I take it that other than a legal document that was drawn up at separation/divorce that gives details of when the CM will be paid up to legally September when Child Maintenace and Tax Credits stop is the legal requirement for CM to be paid until..phew!

Yep - unless your DH has signed some sort of agreement to the contrary (and you need to get him to check his consent order just to be sure) then he can stop paying maintenance at the end of A levels.