Maintenance is usually paid for children until they reach the age of 17 or cease full-time secondary education, whichever is later.
There can be no clean break (ie, a dismissal of maintenance rights) between parents and children. The responsibility of parents to provide financially for their children was initially set down in the Child Support Act 1991 which came in to force on 5 April 1993. The scheme has been amended by subsequent legislation including a further Child Support Act in 1995 and the Child Support Pensions and Social Security Act 2000.
This 2000 Act made radical changes to the system in an attempt to simplify the process both for parents and for those working within the Child Support Agency, and to improve the accuracy and enforcement of child support assessments. However, the basic principle remains much the same.
The child support legislation governs the level of child maintenance that should be paid to the parent with care by a natural parent (not a step-parent, even if he or she has in the past assumed financial responsibility for the child) who is not resident in the child's household.
It does not cover:
- step-children;
- school fees;
- where the absent parent is resident outside the UK (unless working for a UK-based employer);
- if the parent with care is resident outside the UK; or
- if the child is resident outside the UK.
It covers natural children up to the age of 17, or 19 if they are in certain types of full-time education.
The child support scheme sets out a very simple basic formula to calculate the level of child maintenance payable by the non-resident parent. This is based solely on the net income of the non-resident parent and the number of natural children he or she has that are not living in his household.
The basic formula is that a non-resident parent pays to the parent with care the following proportions of net income:
- for one child –15 per cent;
- for two children – 20 per cent; and
- for three or more children – 25 per cent.
Downward adjustments are made to the basic formula if the non-resident parent lives in a household where there are natural children with a new partner or step-children, and for the number of nights per week on average that the children who are the subject of the assessment stay with him or her.
There is a reduced rate available if the non-resident parent earns between £100 and £200 per week. The usual minimum payment per week is £5, but this will be waived if the child stays with the non-resident parent for more than 52 nights per year, or if the parent is a child, in prison or on certain benefits.
At the other end of the scale, the child support calculations do not take into account any net income of the non-resident parent over £104,000 per year. In such a high-income case, the court retains the option of granting a 'top up' to the parent with care.
Neither the income of the parent with care of the child nor the income of any new partner on either side is taken into account in the calculations.
There is very little discretion in the system. Variations from the formula assessment are allowed only on narrow grounds. Your solicitor will be able to advise you whether any of these might apply to your case.
If the parent with care of the children ireceives certain means-tested benefits, he or she is obliged by the DSS to apply for an assessment by the Child Support Agency.
If that parent refuses to make an application, he or she will be penalised by having their benefit payments reduced by a draconian amount – 40 per cent – for an unlimited time.
Other single parents who do not receive benefits may apply to the Child Support Agency for an assessment if they wish to, as long as there is no court order in force regulating payments. They may however prefer to agree a figure for child maintenance, bearing the Child Support Act calculation in mind.
A court order dealing with child maintenance only prohibits the parent with care from applying to the Child Support Agency for an assessment for one year. This means it is more than likely that child maintenance agreed in a consent order on divorce will be at a similar level to that which would be imposed by the Child Support Agency if it were asked.
The court still retains its powers to make orders for the payment of school fees, maintenance for step-children or disabled children and for those in further education and in certain other specific situations. It can also order that capital sums be paid for children, or that property be made available for them, in certain circumstances.
You can find more detailed information about the child support system at www.csa.gov.uk or from a specialist family law solicitor.