The Child Maintenance Service does not have jurisdiction to deal with stepchildren, indeed it will be for the Courts to determine whether child maintenance should be paid. If the stepchild has been raised as part of a new family consisting of parent, steparent, stepchild, and biological children then the Court may well determine that child maintenance is required for the stepchild. 

When a parent is involved is divorce proceedings, dissolution of civil partnership, judicial separation or nullity proceedings, they could apply for a lump sum or property adjustment order for a child of the family as part of the financial settlement proceedings however in practice relatively few orders of this type are made in favour of children as maintenance is generally dealt with by the Child Maintenance Service. Applications could also be made under Schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989. 

 

The amount of child maintenance payable can be included in the financial order which sets down the division of financial assets and payment of any spousal maintenance but it should be noted that an application to the Child Maintenance Service can still be made after a year has passed from the date of the order. Sometimes it is agreed that separate child maintenance is not paid as the parent is contributing in other ways, such as paying the mortgage. However the warning is that either parent can make an application to the Child Maintenance Service after a year from the date of the order regardless of any agreement. 

Yes, if the child in respect of whom maintenance is to be paid still qualifies to receive payments. When calculating maintenance the CMS will indentify the paying parent's gross annual income and convert this into a weekly figure. The amount of maintenance payable will be based on this figure. Therefore the rate may alter if the income has decreased due to retirement. 

Payments of maintenance will stop on the death of either parent. The assumption may be that if it is the parent with care that dies then the child or children will then live with the paying parent although this is not always the case. If it is the paying parent that dies then the CMS can take steps to claim any arrears of child maintenenance from his or her estate. However it should not do so without the consent of the parent with care. 

 

So if you are the one paying maintenance how you ensure that children will be provided for financially? There are various ways of doing this. 

 

The most common way is to make a Will in which you can make provision for your children to inherit upon reaching a certain age. Although they cannot control their own money until they reach 18 years of age at the earliest, you can specify that your executors (ie the person or people who will ensure that the provisions of your Will are followed) can use the children's inheritance to provide for their maintenance or education. Or you can provide a lump sum to the person who will be caring for your children for this purpose. 

 

Another option is to set up a trust for the children so that regular maintenance can be paid in the event of your death. The monies in the trust will be managed by one or more trustees who will be responsible for ensuring the provisions of the trust are met. 

 

A more common option is for a parent to take out a life insurance policy which will name any children as beneficiaries in the event of death. The monies from the policy will therefore be ringfenced for the children and will not form part of what can be distributed under the main estate. 

 

Provided adequately for dependents in the event of death is a complex area and we would recommend that you seek advice from our expert Private Client team to discuss your options.