child maintenance...how long?

The conventional wording is that periodic payments are made to the parent with the majority of care for the benefit of the child until "the child attains the age of 18 or completes full-time education including tertiary education to first degree level, whichever be later."

That could be altered so that CM is paid to the parent for the benefit of the child until the child attains the age of 18 or completes full time secondary education and thereafter the it is paid to the child until they complete tertiary education to first degree.

Whatever is agreed has to seen in context of the overall settlement though and it isn't unreasonable for a young student at uni to be provided with a base with the parent with majority of care even though they aren't there most of the time.

Forgive my confusion. I had been working to end of A-levels for dependency/end of child support. But this thread has been talking about a change in law that hasn't been implemented yet to take dependency to 20. There's been talk of Judge's discretion to whatever age he/she feels like, and to the end of undergrad which normally takes you to 21 or 22. Now there's talk of Consent Orders which you don't have to agree to. Anyone know what the law is?

I was going to ask, if the child applies to go to uni and doesn't get the grades and resits, is CS still due and until when, e.g. until the end of the year, or to 19, or to when?

Any help much appreciated.

If the child remains in full time non advanced (A'level or equivalent) education then under CSA law CS would remain payable until 19th birthday. If they left 6th form and went to uni or work it would remain payable until the first monday in September following leaving.

So if the wording of consent order stated child support to be paid according to rates/ rules of CMA then payment would stop at the end of secondary education and not payable if child went to uni?

From www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/remanual/re1198.htm

"Re1198 - Maintenance payments: Child Support Agency Assessments: When do payments under a Child Support Agency assessment end?

A CSA assessment does not normally show a cessation date as it should be reviewed at regular intervals by the CSA, usually every two years. Payments will normally end when a child reaches age 16, unless they must continue

* to age 19 to allow the child to complete full time education (but not advanced education for a degree or similar qualification) or
* to age 18 if the child is registered for work or youth training but has not yet started youth training or found work which will last for more than 12 weeks after he/she reaches age 16.

If the child receives Income Support in his own right he ceases to be a 'child' for the purposes of the CSA."

Which is how I thought it was, all this talk of funding one child through uni had me worried, afterall, it would only be at the expense of my younger children. "Robbing peter to pay paul" when peter's had his share and now it's paul's turn... so to speak.

As for Consent Orders, I know more about contracts than I do about divorce and never refer to another document unless you know exactly what is in it. Often the other document has complexities of its own. If you want to be clear, say it in the Consent Order and only agree to what are prepared to live with.

are your children to completely fund their own way through university then MisterX and/or housing themselves the day after their last A-level is sat?

excellent, very robust parenting.

Not sure what point you are making?

That its wrong to stop payments to children when they finish their A'levels? The CSA rules state you pay up to the September after they finish.

Unfortunately that might mean they have to self fund at uni or hopefully they will have a good relationship with the parent who was paying CM as it will be that parent's choice whether they will decide to support the young adult themselves directly.