Call me suspicious

I have recently received an e mail from my x informing me that she was setting up a bank account in my daughters name and asks me to pay my money into this account. I do not have any court orders against me and this is voluntarily contribution that I am paying. As she is now working I am thinking is this something to do with a tax issue or any benefits that she may be claiming that she does not want me to pay money to her directly , call me sceptical but I do not trust her. Any advice gratefully appreciated, thanks.

How old is your daughter?

child maintenance payments are not taken into account when calculating tax credits and other type of benefits, so it won''t change those.

My daughter is 16

Hi fitou143

My X mentioned that the CS may not go towards what he thought it should - the child!

So I always made (&make) sure that I have a list & receipts where possible to justify the CS - which is not hard to do as it''s not much per child.

Since 16 my eldest now 18 had the money Tfr from my account to his but he bought his own clothes & had a job by 16 ( thankfully) less the phone money & any that was owed.

The youngest is coming to 16 so I will do the same

However, I have been lucky that I could do, had I not changed jobs then the money would have been needed to be used on bills!!

Stay strong JJx

Now you are separating you shouldn''t be concerned about how your wife manages her finances. If she thinks paying your daughter directly will affect her tax and benefits she is mistaken, but it doesn''t affect you.

Parents can agree the amount of child maintenance and how it is paid between themselves. IF you pay by direct debit with a reference to child maintenance you have a record. The CM Options website has a lot of resources to help parents make family based arrangement including a written agreement.

A family based agreement isn''t legally binding and either party may apply to the CSA (or Child Maintenance Services) at any time. Child maintenance is then assessed from the time the CSA contacts the paying parent and can''t be backdated.