Hi esox11
Thank you for your post. I am William, the
child maintenance Options consultant. I will provide you with some information that may help to answer your query.
Child maintenance is a contribution towards the cost of bringing up a child and this includes not only such items as food and clothing, but also it is a contribution towards the home that the child lives in and the associated costs of running that home.
Under the statutory rules, child maintenance is payable when the receiving parent is still in receipt of Child Benefit payments and the child is aged under 16, or until their 20 birthday and in full-time non-advanced education. The definition of full-time education is of full-time education is more than 12 hours a week of study, on a course up to and including A-level standard. Some examples of non-advanced education are:
GCSEs
A levels
iGCSEs
Pre-U
International Baccalaureate
NVQ/SVQ level 1, 2 or 3
BTEC National Diploma, National Certificate and First Diploma
SCE higher grade or similar
If the child were in advanced or higher education, they would no longer qualify for child maintenance. Some examples of advanced and higher education are:
A degree
Diploma of Higher Education
NVQ level 4 or above
BTEC Higher National Certificate (HNC)
Teacher training
However, you have mentioned that you pay child maintenance via a family-based arrangement. With this type of agreement, there are no strict rules to stick to as it is not legally-binding and does not involve the courts or the Child Support Agency (CSA). Therefore, both you and your daughter''s mother have the flexibility to decide when child maintenance can stop being paid. The main thing is that both of you are in agreement and your arrangement remains amicable.
A family-based arrangement does not need to be all about money, although many parents do include financial contributions. Your arrangement can include other kinds of support, such as you directly paying for things that your daughter needs. Many parents find that family-based arrangements are their preferred choice of child maintenance because they are very flexible and can be easily reviewed and changed to meet the needs of your child.
If you would like to know more about child maintenance, please visit out website at
www.cmoptions.org. Alternatively, you may wish to call us on 0800 988 0988 between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday or 9am and 4pm on Saturday. We also have a Sorting Out Separation web-app that you may find useful. It offers help and support to separating and separated families. The link is:
www.wikivorce.com/divorce/Sorting-Out-Separation.html.
