consent order re maintenance at uni

my husband has a Consent Order which states he pays maintenance until his daughter finishes full time education. She is now 19 and will be starting university this year. We have just received notification from the court the order has been extended until she finishes university.it did not state this in the order!. His x wife earns over £45k (she was also bought a house mortgage free) and due to her income his daugher will not receive a grant from the student loans company. However, my daugher (his step daughter) is already at uni and due to our income she does get a grant,but we cannot afford to help her out. Whilst we intend to help his daughter as much as we can my husband is at a loss to know when he can stop paying his x wife. We did hear that it is possible to apply to change the court order for a child support order which would then mean he would not have to pay maintenance for her past 19. Is this possible.

University is full time education and many parents do pay child support until the end of it. Given that this has been extended by the court you husband is risking bad feeling from his daughter if he doesn't pay. He might be able to make an agreement with his ex wife to pay his daughter directly, which might feel more palatable.

I believe that in circumstances such as this the child can take the parent to court for maintenance, so don't just stop it unilaterally.

Sadie

My daughter is getting the full grant, but still she is taking her dad to court for support as well. Her solicitor says she has a good case. At the end of the day two parents make the child, so two parents should help to support the child through university.

my husband has a good relationship with his daughter and we have her very regularly, he has always been more than generous,opaying for her car, insurance, etc, then findining out it was in the x wifes name! he has no problem helping her through uni but both parents should pay not just the one, which is what he appears to be doing, also when does a child become an adult and actually take responsibility for themselves!

Ataloss, you are completely correct, both parents should help.

When the child is home in university holidays someone has to feed and house that child. No more child benefit, tax credits etc. when they go to university.

Im not saying that the NRP should continue to pay to the mother, because as you so rightly say that child going to university is 18, but helping her through university will enable her to have a lower debt at the end of it.

If she is not getting the "free money", someone will have to help her make it up because she will need more than the grant to survive.

It is neither one or the other parents responsibility to help the child, it is both, no matter what income they are on.

ataloss - I think you're technically an adult from around the age of 16 - 19 when you first get a job or go to university and live away from your parents. But parental responsibility doesn't stop then, does it? I can't personally imagine a time when I wouldn't welcome my children back into my home and support them if the circumstances required it. I always had a home with my parents until married and then my husband and I had a home with them after we married if we needed it. When it came down to it, it was my mum who found enough money to make sure we were decently re-housed after divorce and who put a roof over our heads in the time between completing on the family home and completing on our new home. I don't/didn't expect my mum to help me out, of course, but without my parent's continued financial support into my adulthood for education, buying a first car and finally keeping a roof over our heads was invaluable and I'm very, very grateful for it. Are you suggesting you would turn your child away if she needed help and you had the ability to help her or is it just your step-daughter you'd prefer not to support?

ataloss2 wrote:

Whilst we intend to help his daughter as much as we can my husband is at a loss to know when he can stop paying his x wife. We did hear that it is possible to apply to change the court order for a child support order which would then mean he would not have to pay maintenance for her past 19. Is this possible.

Courts consider it reasonable for a young student to be provided with a base when at university even if they don't stay there all the time and it is common for payments to continue to be paid to a parent for the benefit of a child. However, a the payer of CM is entitled to be protected against the child’s prolonged or indefinite deferral of attendance at university and case law establishes that CM ends on completion of a first degree and, if appropriate, including a gap year either between leaving school and going to uni or after uni and before employment.

It isn't possible to apply for child support if there is a court order predating March 2003 or if the "child" has reached 19 years of age.