Maintenance

My husband and I have been paying maintenance for his 2 children since his marriage broke down 11 years ago. His eldest daughter is 19 and left 6th form last year in July and is now at University. We stopped paying maintenance for her at the end of last July as per court order which stated that payment must be made until she reaches 17 or finishes full time education. We continue to pay maintenance for his 16 year old son. Her mother has recently demanded that we reinstate the maintenance for his daughter (requesting that it is made payable to her plus arrears from last August)as his ex wife is unable to manage on her income. His ex wife had left it 6 months to actually decide that we had ''no right'' to stop payments. We have declined to agree with her demands and now she has instructed a solicitor to reiterate and pursue her demands. Can you possibly tell us where we stand with regards to her demand for reinstating the maintenance for his daughter?

Unfortunately "full time education" is open to interpretation and could mean end of secondary education or uni. It''s usual for child maintenance to be paid to a parent for the benefit of the "child" but perhaps one way forward would be a compromise and to agree to pay something directly to the child.

Sadly we have no contact with her, (her choice)as we would be more than happy to help her out via a private arrangement Thank you for your reply.