Extending child maintenance to university

I wonder if anyone can help?

I have a court order in place specifying an amount of child mainteance for each of my 4 children, until they "cease full time secondary education"

My eldest daughter is about to start her university degree course, and naturally I am delighted. Having discussed this with my daughter I have stopped paying the maintenance to her mother (as per the court order), and have agreed with my daughter to pay an amount directly to her, in excess of the amount I was required to pay by the order.

This does not seem to satisfy my ex wife (who always was a control freak!), and she has contacted the Magistrates'' Court, with whom the order is now registered for collection purposes. They wrote to me implying that they might extend this order as my daughter is still in "education". I replied, expalining to them that this is higher education and therfore explicitly falls outside of the scope of the court order.

They have written back saying that they are consulting their "legal advisers"

Surely there can be no question of the magistares court simply being able to extend this order, because my ex wife wants it? The original order is unambiguous and, in respect of my eldest daughter, has expired?

Can anyone help? Where do I stand?

You''ve complied with the order so it would appear to be little to worry about.

Have you checked what you would pay via CSA? Might be worth checking if you preffered that route.

Many thanks.

I won''t go to the CSA as their calculation is based on 3 or more children, so it makes no difference if there are 3 or 10!

I have 3 other children for whom I am maintenance for, to their mother, under the court order. I know that the CSA will assess me at a higher rate of maintenance, but take no account of all of the other aspects that the judge took into account when approving the order (the fact she got the entire FMH, 1/3 of my pension, that I took on all of the very considerable debt built up in joint names during the marriage etc.).

My ex may well apply to the CSA, if she gets no joy from the magistrates court, and, eventually I will be made to pay a lot more to her.

This will be a real shame as it will mean that I will not be able to continue to pay my eldest daughter direct and my standing order to her will have to be cancelled.

This is a risk I am prepared to take for what I see as some very belated justice. Of course, if I am unable to pay my eldest daughter through university, I will not pay for the other 3 should they be fortunate enough to qualify. As a point of principle, I will only do for one what I can do for all.

An order for child maintenance can be extended for over 18s in higher education. The courts would consider both parent''s and the "child''s" financial resources and if you can afford it you might be expected to contribute something towards maintenance.

Usually child maintenance is paid to the parent with the majority of care for the benefit of the child. Although a student might not live at home full time the courts tend to take the view it isn''t unreasonable for them to be provided with a base. However, sometimes the courts will order direct payments to the child. To that end you might want to investigate if there are any disadvantages to student loans, bursaries etc if you make direct payments.

Many thanks.

Would I be correct in thinking that since my daughter is over 18 (nearly 19) that she, and she alone could apply to the court, and not her mother?

She won''t, as she is delighted to be getting the money direct from me as she knows she won''t get as much if it goes via her mother! She told me this!

Bluesauce
You renew my faith in dads! You are offerring to pay money straight to your daughter which I think is only right as at 18 you and she can deal direct.
My son starts uni at the weekend and his miserable dad has stopped paying maintenance to me which is fair, but he has not responded to my and sons request for some help direct to son.
I would have thought your ex would be grateful you and d have made an agreement.
Taking it to court is rubbish. I was advised my son could take his dad to court directly but we would rather not bother and muddle along.
Is your ex really hard up and concerned at the loss of child related benefits?
But you have said there are younger children. My income has reduced by a third recently but because son is my youngest and I will just get on with it.
You sound a great dad

Thanks.

I really don''t understand your ex, why on earth wouldn''t he want to support his son through university. It makes no sense to me!

No, my ex wife is very well off: she''s no fool and remarried an accountant!!

She is just very controlling, and can''t stand the thought that she will have less money to support her very extravagant lifestyle, and that she will have lost this element of control over our daughter.

I know that''s only my take on it, but I just cannot see why else she would resent me paying her direct.