Re Child maintenance via Court Order

If you have been supporting both children directly and can prove this hopefully this amount will be taken into consideration with paying back any arrears.

Which is exactly my point, thankyou.

Thanks for your time Spooky.
Ex wife will take it further for sure re my daughter. Of course I would always pay what I can but she will moan like a drain now she thinks she is in with a shout of more money!!
Which is why, If I could cut her off at the pass with a definitive response such as. ''I can continue to pay for my boy as always but my daughter willhave to get what I can afford.''
There would be more strength to my argument if I knew if I was actually legally bound to pay anything re my daughter.
Cheers

I understand that
Thankyou

We recently consulted a Family Law Solicitor regarding (amongst other things) leaving education and possible re-instatement of an original Court Order after 15 months out of education. In our case my step-daughter moved in with us from New Zealand to try and make a life for herself in England and whilst looking for work claimed Job Seekers Allowance. As her New Zealand qualifications were not recognised over here she couldn''t manage to find work so returned to New Zealand after being here for 8 months. She has subsequently been offered a place at Uni in New Zealand and starts the course at the beginning of March. The Solicitor told us that my husband was not liable to pay any maintenance to her mother as she had completed her education (maintenance was stopped in Dec 2011 when she had finished A level equivalents)and had decided to go to Uni after too long a break. He said that the original order could not be resurrected in those circumstances. Hope this helps.

If the order says you are to pay maintenance to your ex for the benefit of the child then that''s what you should do unless the order is varied.

As far as gap years are concerned the courts will sometimes allow for a gap year and I suspect that with two years it will depend on the particular circumstances. Sorry if that doesn''t help but often the best thing you can do is negotiate and reach an agreement between yourselves if possible. It really isn''t in either parents interest to take this to court because the legal expenses are likely to outweigh the amount of maintenance. Perhaps the way forward is to continuing paying your daughter directly whilst paying you ex for your son.