PWC dumps Child in Home

Sorry, didn''t realise you lived abroad re you having your son stay with you.

I agree with Dukey - she isn''t entitled to Child Maintaince as your son is being cared for by others.

zootar

Its an empty threat, the CSA deal with child maintenance not the court in the vast majority of circumstances, if the CSA say they can no longer deal with it and she does not actually look after the child there is nothing she can do.

The CSA won''t deal with the case because you are living abroad and the courts have jurisdiction in these circumstances. Your son being in a home temporarily doesn''t necessarily mean there is no child maintenance.

There are two agency`s that deal with child maintenance the CSA and REMO, so even if your abroad in many cases child maintenance can be enforced, if the child has been in care for four months and still in care any application for child maintenance would fail, that is until such time as she has care of the child again.

Fiona wrote:

The CSA won''t deal with the case because you are living abroad and the courts have jurisdiction in these circumstances. Your son being in a home temporarily doesn''t necessarily mean there is no child maintenance.

Hi - thanks for the post.
I just want to clarify, I''m under no impression that CM doesn''t need to be paid, but my view at the moment is that it should be paid to the home - not the ex.

I just got this from Legal Advice, posted here for the benefit of others.

Child maintenance matters are usually now dealt with by CSA not court.

There is a reduction in proportion to the amount of time that the child stays away from the resident parent subject to a minimum of 52 nights per year. This is to cater for a child who stays one night a week with the other parent. In that case, the maintenance is reduced by 17.

I assume that the local authority are paying for your son''s care. In which case, if anyone, the local authority is entitled to the payment.

I don''t know why the CSA have told you that they cannot manage this any more.

Assuming that she goes to court, you will be defended on the basis you''ve outlined. Just make sure you pay her what you have agreed with her (at CSA rate) for the period that your son is with her.

My suggestion would be to get your solicitor to write explaining exactly what you''re paying and how it is calculated based upon the period of nonresidence of your son.

OP will have been told that the CSA no longer deals with the matter because he is living abroad (and presumably is not in the forces or meeting one of the other exceptions)

Whether or not you are liable to continue to pay will depend to a great extent on whether the arrangement is a temporary or a permanent one.

If it is temporary, then it is likely to be reasonable to carry on paying - Mum is probably still paying for clothes etc, plus general living expenses (household bills etc) need to be paid for the hosue suitable for child even if he is not physically there.

I doubt that the home is set up to receive payments. If the home erquires payment then Mum will be contributing to this and the funds will go via her, for that purpose.

If it is wholly finded by the LA then it probably isna''t set up to accept payments.

Depending on Son''s disability you could speak to the home about providing a set amount for him for pocket money / treats and pay the rest to mum.

Do bear in mind that during the periods mum is caring for son,it is very unlikely that the amounts you pay cover anything like the true costs of caring for a child s think of it as possibly paying a bit more than s needed right now, as being offset against paying a bit less than is needed most of the rest of the time.