If you're a separated parent responsible for paying child maintenance and live in England, Scotland or Wales,
the Child Maintenance Service can take legal action against you for missing a payment or not paying the amount due
. This legal action can force you to pay the child maintenance you owe.
What happens if you don't pay child maintenance UK?
CMS can take you to court over unpaid child maintenance
. They can apply for a court order to take legal action. This is a ‘liability order'. If the court grants the order, CMS can then legal action against you.
What is Deo order?
Deduction from earnings orders ( DEOs ) are
a way of collecting child maintenance directly from a paying parent's earnings or pension
. The paying parent is the parent who does not have main day-to-day care of the child.
Do fathers legally have to pay child maintenance?
Arranging child maintenance
When possible, you should make sure your child is looked after by having an effective maintenance arrangement in place.
Both parents are legally responsible for the financial costs of bringing up their children
, even parents who don't live with their children.
Can child maintenance be paid directly to the child?
Who do you have to pay child maintenance to? Child maintenance is normally paid to the parent who has primary care of the child.
It isn't paid to the child direct
.
Do I still pay child maintenance if my ex remarries?
The answer is no.
When parents divorce, the absent parent (“paying parent”) is obliged by law to pay child maintenance to the parent caring for the child (“receiving parent”)
.
What happens if the father doesn't pay child support?
A liability order allows the CMS to take legal action against the paying parent to recover the debt. They could:
Negotiate payment using bailiffs, or ask them to seize and sell the paying parent's belongings
. Use an ‘order for sale' to sell the paying parent's assets or property and take the proceeds.
How many years can CSA be backdated?
Is there a CSA arrears time limit? Generally speaking,
there is no time limit on when the CMS or CSA can collect your arrears
. Usually, they will try to collect it within two years of you falling behind with your payments.
When can I legally stop paying child maintenance?
Contacting the Child Maintenance Service
You're normally expected to pay child maintenance
until your child is 16, or until they're 20 if they're in school or college full-time studying for: A-levels
.
Highers, or
.
equivalent
.
Can a father refuse to pay maintenance?
A parent may not withhold payment of maintenance if he or she is not allowed by the other parent to exercise his/her right of access to a child
. The flip side of the coin is that a parent may not refuse the other parent access to a child when the latter does not contribute towards the maintenance of that child.
Can you go to jail for not paying maintenance?
If maintenance isn't paid,
the court can take the money from the maintenance payer's salary, their investment account, auction their property or issue a warrant of arrest
.
How often is CSA paid?
Most payments are made: •
every week (52 payments a year), or • every month (12 payments a year)
. If child maintenance is taken from a paying parent's benefits, you should receive your child maintenance payments as often as the paying parent gets their benefit payments.
Can child maintenance be reduced?
If payments are reduced or stopped (unless agreed between you), you will be in breach of the court order
. If you genuinely can't meet payments because your income has fallen, you can ask the court to reduce the amount of child maintenance you need to pay.
Can the CSA take money from my wages without telling me?
The CSA can take the money from the parent's bank account, wages or benefits
. If your child's other parent doesn't respond to the CSA's attempts to contact them or doesn't pay the arrears, the CSA may apply to the court for a liability order.
Does child maintenance include clothes?
Child maintenance covers the cost of the everyday care of the child, such as food, clothes, and housing
. Expenses such as school fees do not fall under child maintenance – parents who are getting a divorce can make a “Family Based Arrangement” to deal with costs like this.
Do I have to pay child maintenance if it's 50 50 custody?
If you have shared care for at least 52 nights a year, you don't need to pay any child maintenance
.
Do I have to pay child maintenance if I'm not on the birth certificate?
If an unwed father is not listed on the birth certificate, he has no legal rights to the child. This includes
no obligation to paying child support
and no rights to visitation to custody or child support. If no father is listed on the birth certificate, the mother has sole legal rights and responsibility of the child.
How much child maintenance should a father pay?
Assuming you're on the basic rate, you'll need to pay:
12% of your gross weekly income for one child
. 16% of your gross weekly income for two children. 19% of your gross weekly income for three or more children.
Can you go to jail for not paying child support?
A CSA spokeswoman said: “
It is highly unusual for anyone to be sent to prison for the non-payment of child maintenance
. Magistrates must be satisfied that a parent has wilfully refused or culpably neglected to meet their financial responsibilities.”
Does marriage affect child maintenance?
Whether or not you have remarried, or your ex-partner has remarried,
does not affect the obligation to continue paying child maintenance
.
Can I go after my ex husband's new wife for child support UK?
There are no grounds for reducing child maintenance on the basis that your ex-wife is living with a new partner
. Your obligation to pay child maintenance continues regardless of your ex-wife's circumstances.
How can I get child maintenance from my ex?
If you and your ex-partner can't agree child maintenance payments between you, you can
contact the Child Maintenance Service (CMS)
. They'll work out how much child maintenance should be paid. If you want them to, they can also arrange for the money to be paid. There's usually a charge for using the CMS.
Does my boyfriend have to pay child support if we live together?
If the person you live with is not your children's parent, then that person has no obligation to support your children
. The amount of child support your ex-spouse is ordered to pay usually isn't affected by the fact that you live with someone else.
Can I get child support if the father is unemployed?
[1] If a parent is unemployed and does not receive an income
the Maintenance Court may order that assets be attached and sold to pay for the maintenance of the minor child
. In the worst-case scenario failure to pay maintenance can also be deemed a criminal offence and may be susceptible to criminal prosecution.
