Hi Still breathing
Thank you for your post. I am William the Child Maintenance Options consultant. I will provide some information that may help confirm some of the information that has been provided in this thread.
As Fiona as stated, under the statutory rules, regular child maintenance payments must be made until a child is 16 years old, or 20 if they are in full-time, non-advanced education (A-level or equivalent), or for as long as Child Benefit is being paid. When a child leaves full-time education in the summer, Child Benefit generally continues until the first week of September. You can find more information on the statutory rules by visiting Gov.uk at
www.gov.uk/when-child-maintenance-payments-stop.
The Child Maintenance Service uses the amount of gross income given to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) by a paying parent, their employer or their accountant to work out the average amount of earnings, or where the paying parent is self-employed, their taxable profits. For every case, the gross income figure will be reviewed each year in order to take account of newer income information given to HMRC.
If during the year earnings from employment change temporarily from week to week due to overtime or bonuses, this usually would not make a difference to the amount a paying parent must pay in the 2012 scheme. But if there is a more permanent change to current income and this differs from this by 25% or more from the income figure previously used then the paying parent can apply to have a temporary new calculation put in place. They will need to provide evidence for this but, if successful, the new calculation will usually apply at least up until the next Annual Review. You can find more information on how the Child Maintenance Service works out child maintenance at
www.gov.uk/how-child-maintenance-is-work...ut-child-maintenance. You may also wish to get in touch with the Child Maintenance Service directly.
With regards to the specifics of setting up a Consent Order, you may wish to speak you your solicitor for further guidance.
For more information on the ways to set up child maintenance, please visit our website at
www.cmoptions.org. Alternatively, you can call us free on 0800 988 0988 between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday or 9am and 4pm on a Saturday. We have a sorting out separation web-app that you may find useful. It offers help and support to separating and separated families.
Regards
William
