Enforcing court order for cm payments?

naziam, I understand where you are coming from, but there is a difference between an imposed order of the court determined by a ruling of a judge and a maintenance agreement agreed by parents.

Before the Child Support Act 1991 was introduced the courts had jurisdiction for child maintenance. For those of us who have been around long enough to remember stand alone applications for child maintenance took time, the legal fees were expensive and each case depended on the specific facts so there was criticism of a lack of consistency. The CSA scheme was introduced to provide consistency and an effective, cheap and speedy means to enforce child support obligations. Another aim was to reduce dependency upon social security and the cost to the taxpayer.

The law changed so the courts no longer normally have jurisdiction to *impose* an order of the court for child maintenance or a variation. Exceptions are when one parent lives abroad, there are step-children or children over 18 in education. However with the intention of enabling parents to make their own agreement provision was made for the parties to invite the court by agreement to order an agreed sum of child maintenance as part of a financial order.

The 12 month rule means either party to such an agreement may apply to the CMS after a year for a maintenance calculation, the CMS then notifies the court and the order ceases to have any effect. Any arrears under the agreement which fall due before the coming into force of the CMS maintenance calculation can be recovered (s10(3)b CSA 1991) through court enforcement proceedings.