Child maintenance

[jnicholls]

Please can anyone help.
My husband divorced from his first wife eight years ago. They have two sons together but has not seen them for over five years. This is not the wishes of ours. However the oldest one is 19 years old and from what we have been told he is at university. During the divorce procedure there was a court order for child maintenance for both lads - however looking at the court order it looks like we will have to continue to pay for them until they are 21 years old!!!. has anyone heard of this before ?- it just seems ridiculaous as he is an adult and feel that he can make his own way in life.
We have always been happy to pay for them and have never defaulted on payments but we are unable to contct the boys and have never directly been advised of their intended plans. We also do not know whether they actually have knowledge that they recieve money.
We are going back to court soon so that we can achieve some kind of end date to stop paying otherwise i can see us paying for them for the rest of their lives!!
Does anyone know if the order can be varied and is it reasonable to see if payments can go into their own accounts??
If anyone has had similar experience or has some advice i wouls really appreciate it.
Kind regards
JJ

[jaffa cake]

quite often you have to pay maintenance until they finish full time education ie university.

[Le Chat]

Please also bear in mind that the payments go to the mother to cover the childrens' portion of food, heat, clothes, pocket money, trips out, holiday spends etc etc etc. Unless they are living in separate homes, then there is no need for them to have the money in their accounts, as the money is contributing to their daily living standards.

[Nosha123]

I'm not suggesting you should... but if you stopped the bank payment - they would have to contact you to ask why... to be able to respond they would have to inc a tel no or address surely??

sad that he isnt allowed contact with them!

[hc4361]

Child support under the formula will be paid to children under 16, or above that but still receiving full-time non-advanced education (namely secondary education or training college). Children who need maintenance to support them at university (tertiary education) would usually have to apply themselves, under the Children Act 1989, if they need to force a parent to pay up to meet their costs.

http://www.channel4.c...y/rights/support.html

I bet that 'child' is costing his mother a small fortune while he is at uni. It is not unusual to pay maintenance while a child is at university full time.