Hi, I''m William a Child Maintenance Options consultant. Thanks for your post. Once a Consent Order has been agreed and authorised, the non-resident parent is legally liable to pay the amount the court has endorsed. However, the court doesn''t monitor or collect payments. Therefore, the parent with care will need to seek legal advice for any missed or reduced payments, unless they''re happy to accept them.
It''s possible to change the terms of your Consent Order and to do this you''ll need to get legal advice. This most commonly results in going back to court to set out the application on a standard form. The court will then consider any changes.
Any Consent Orders that were endorsed after March 2003 aren''t legally subject to change unless they''ve been in place for at least 12 months. After 12 months, either parent can apply to the Child Support Agency (CSA) and the Consent Order will no longer be valid. However, if a Consent Order dates back to before April 2003, then law doesn''t allow parents to change over to the CSA. Only the courts have the ability to arrange child maintenance in such circumstances.
If you''d like to pursue changing your Consent Order, Community Legal Advice is a Government funded confidential legal service. They offer free advice to people eligible for Legal Aid in England and Wales. Their contact details are as follows:
Telephone: 0845 345 4345
Opening hours: Monday to Friday 9am to 6.30pm
Website:
www.legalservices.gov.uk
You may also like to contact the Citizens Advice. They provide free information and advice on topics such as legal, housing and debt. Their website address is
www.adviceguide.org.uk/index.htm. Alternatively, you may wish to liaise with the solicitor that started the original proceedings.
The CSA state that child maintenance is payable when the parent with care is still in receipt of Child Benefit payments and the child is aged under 16, or under 19 and in full-time non-advanced education. When a child leaves full-time education in the summer, Child Benefit generally continues until the first week of September.
The definition of full-time education is more than 12 hours a week of study, on a course up to and including A level standard. Some examples of non-advanced education are:
O level, GCE, GCSE, A level, AS level
SCE Higher Grade or equivalent
GNVQ, NVQ levels 1 2 and 3
BTEC National Diploma
SCOTVEC National Certificate
Scottish Certificate of 6th Year Studies
Foundation Arts Course
Secretarial Course with GCSE entry
NNEB
Hairdressing Courses
If the child were in advanced or higher education, they''d no longer qualify for child maintenance. Some examples of advanced and higher education are:
Degree
NVQ level 4 and above
DHE
HND
BTEC, NHC, HND
SCTVEC, HNC, HND
Teacher Training
For further information and guidance on the above you may wish to speak to the CSA directly. You can find the telephone number for your nearest office by clicking on the following link and entering the first part of your postcode in to the search box
www2.dwp.gov.uk/csa/v2/en/setup/apply-by-telephone.asp. The telephone numbers for each office are:
Midlands (Dudley): 0845 604 1146
Falkirk: 0845 604 4137
South West/Plymouth: 0845 604 4565
Birkenhead: 0845 604 4564
Belfast: 0845 604 4560
Hastings: 0845 604 0009
Opening hours: 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday and 9am to 5pm on Saturday
Website:
www.gov.uk/child-support-agency
If you''d like any further information on child maintenance you can call the Child Maintenance Options team on 0800 988 0988 (free from a landline).
Hope this helps, William.
