What if Your Child's Support Payments Stop?

Child Support Payments are regulated by the Child Support Agency (CSA); payments are for the support of the child from the non-resident parent to the parent with primary residency. The money is not the same as Child Benefit. Child Benefit is a set amount, state-given sum of money that is higher for the first child than for each subsequent child. 

Payments for children can also be regulated by the court.

The amount of money for maintenance is based on the money earned after appropriate deductions are made, for example, if the non-resident parent has custody of the children for a period of time, such as overnight contact. It is important to remember that the payment is a formal arrangement and can be enforced by a number of powers that the CSA has at their disposal including Bailiffs.

Non-formal arrangements are ones that are not regulated by the CSA and are based entirely on trust between the two parties as to when payments are made. This is not to say that because you have not entered into a formal arrangement you are precluded from, at least, approaching the CSA to ask about more formal maintenance payments. Any agreement that you may have entered into, not to approach the CSA, is not valid legally.

Is it a legitimate stoppage or change in payment?

If the payments stop and they are regulated by the CSA you have to consider whether the payments have ceased legitimately. There may be a very good reason as to why they have stopped and if you need to take action as a result, then you need to explore all the reasonable options. Unless you have an arrangement that is to the contrary, the CSA works along the following basic lines:

Is the child 16 and no longer in full time education? - if yes, then the payments have been correctly stopped. Payments will automatically stop a month after a child who is in full time education turns 19. This is because the maintenance payments are paid a month in arrears, so the support continues for the full year that the child is 18.

Has there been a change in circumstances that necessitated an alteration to the amount that is being paid in maintenance? - the non-resident parent informing the CSA that their financial situation has changed normally instigates alterations in payment. For example, stopping or starting work or changes in employment status to self employed, alternatively changes in benefits either starting or stopping benefits.  The resident parent can also tell the CSA if any of these changes occur. There are a number of alterations that may force the CSA to undertake a reassessment that may change the amount that is paid in maintenance.

It would be unrealistic to expect that maintenance remain static and as a result changes in amounts that are paid should be expected. If you suspect, however, that it is not a legitimate change there are ways to address this.

What if you suspect the change is not legitimate?

Maintenance can be a big source of contention between two parties and can lead to a breakdown in communication, which if your children are subject to shared access orders and custody, can affect the children and the relationship each parent has with each other and their children. This is not to say that if you genuinely suspect that there is something irregular about the payments that you should not investigate, but be careful that this does not impact your children unnecessarily.

The easiest way to raise your concerns, and your first port of call, is to speak to the CSA directly should you suspect anything. If you have any evidence, offer to send it to them and report the facts. Even if you do not have any direct evidence, investigations can be undertaken if the CSA feel they are able to conduct an investigation.

Tread Carefully

CSA payments can become a big problem between parties if one feels that the other is not contributing to shared financial responsibility of your children. It is important that the children do not suffer emotionally as a result. It is an obvious but an important point to make, that if payments stop that does not mean that contact can stop. Contact has often been court ordered and being in breach of a court order can have serious consequences. If you have concerns about maintenance payments, raise them with the CSA or Court as applicable and pursue the matter through official channels seeking professional advice where appropriate.