Hi Purrfect
Thank you for your post. I am William the
child maintenance Options consultant. I will provide some information that may help answer your query.
If you wanted to use the rules that are employed by the Child Maintenance Service then 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 when child maintenance stops on Gov.uk at
www.gov.uk/when-child-maintenance-payments-stop.
To find out if there is another legal route to claim child maintenance, you may wish to seek legal advice. If you do not have access to a solicitor, you may wish to contact Civil Legal Advice. This organisation is a Government-funded confidential legal service that provide legal information to those eligible for legal aid in England and Wales. Their contact details can be found on Gov.uk at
www.gov.uk/civil-legal-advice.
You may also wish to contact the Citizens Advice Bureau as they can provide information on legal topics (
www.adviceguide.org.uk).
You mentioned that your husband pays you a fixed amount to cover certain expenses when your child is at home from university. If this is via a family-based arrangement, there are no strict rules to stick to. Therefore, you have the freedom to try and renegotiate your arrangement with your husband. The main thing is that both of you are in agreement and your arrangement remains amicable.
A family-based arrangement can include money and other kinds of support, such as your husband directly paying for things that your child may need. Although family-based arrangements are not legally-binding, many parents prefer them because of their flexibility and how easy the arrangement can be reviewed, such as if you or your husband’s circumstances change. You can find more information on family-based arrangements on our website at
www.cmoptions.org/en/family/index.asp. You may also find our page on talking about child maintenance useful (
www.cmoptions.org/en/family/talking.asp).
We have a range of tools and guides on our website that you may find useful (
www.cmoptions.org/en/toolbox/index.asp). These include our discussion guide which you can use to help you plan your conversations around child maintenance. We also have a family-based arrangement form that is not a legally-binding document but if used to write down what both of you have agreed, it can help to formalise your arrangement.
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.
Regards
William
