New Child Maintenance Service vs Consent Order

Does anyone out there know the answer to this please?

I understand that at the moment if child maintenance is arranged through a Consent Order agreed by the Court then, after a year, either parent can choose to go to the Child Support Agency (CSA) and make payments through that route instead.

Going through the CSA overrides the Court and makes the child maintenance elements of the consent order null and void, it effectively wipes them out and takes over.

There are some big changes planned in relation to the child maintenance system including the new Child Maintenance Service. Does anyone know how these might affect the above process?

Thanks

The proposed changes are more about numbers than the process ie, they are thinking of using gross income to calculate rather than net, the process itself will not change as far as i know.

Thanks dukey.

Things do seem a little unclear at the moment. I contacted Child Maintenance Options who could really only confirm for me the law as it currently stands and point me in the direction of what the DWP has published in terms of proposals so far.

As far as I can tell, none of these address the issue of whether the new CMS will over rule a consent order agreed by a court in the way the CSA currently does.

I know it''s all a bit wooly right now, but there are no proposed changes to jurisdiction, who is in charge of what, the changes only really relate to gross or net income, even then it''s only a trial.

The CSA, or whatever name they end up with will still control CM once an order is over a year old.

Basically s8 Child Support Act 1991 "Role of the courts with respect to maintenance for children" and the 12 month rule remains the same.

Thank you everyone for your posts on this, they’ve been really helpful.

There’s something else I’ve been trying to work out and you may know the answer. Our consent order includes provision for child maintenance beyond the age that is normally covered by the CSA (or new Child Maintenance Service - CMS).

It basically states that child maintenance will continue to be paid at the rate set out in the consent order up until the point when my daughter finishes her first degree (if that’s what she decides to do).

What I’m wondering is what happens to this part of the consent order if either myself or my ex-partner choose to go through the CSA or CMS? Do the agreements / arrangements set out in the consent order come back into effect once my daughter reaches the age where she is no longer covered by the CSA / CMS (i.e. does jurisdiction return to the court / consent order at this point and the arrangements become enforceable)? Or does this part of the consent order also become invalid as a consequence of going through the CSA / CSM?