Financial stability for your children during and after divorce

Although not an ideal situation, many marriages do not work out and end in divorce. This can often be a stressful and unsettling experience. When children are involved, a divorce can become further complicated. You may be concerned about the stability of their future, especially financially. Therefore, it’s important that you know where you and your ex-spouse stand. Also, how much you or your ex- spouse will be expected to pay to contribute to the financial stability of your children.

Child maintenance is the mechanism that is put in place in England and Wales to ensure that both parents pay a share of the upkeep of their children even after they are divorced.

The money paid in child maintenance helps the parent who looks after the child most of the time to manage day-to-day expenses such as food, clothes, rent or mortgage and school uniforms. Paying a share of your child’s living costs can help you to remain an integral part of their lives even if they live with your ex-spouse most of the time.

Arranging child maintenance does not have to be an adversarial process and you need not involve any government agencies. You can come to an agreement between you two during your divorce discussions. If you cannot come to an agreement, you can use the Statutory Child Maintenance Service who will get involved only if you ask for their help. This replaces the Child Support Agency, which stopped taking new cases in 2013.

If you and your ex-partner share the care of your children, then the maintenance payments will take into account the time spent with you and the time spent with them to ensure that this is a fair reflection of your circumstances.

There are currently half a million families who have decided to make arrangements for child maintenance payments themselves with their ex-partners, with no involvement from the government. You can agree on an amount, how regularly this is paid and even how it is paid. This is a family-based agreement.

Even though you may have the best intentions, you may not be able to agree on the details without some outside help. We can help you come to an agreed settlement.

Where this does not work, you do have the opportunity of asking the Statutory Child Maintenance Service to get involved.

Don’t be confused or worried about child maintenance; if you need any further information to put your mind at ease, please call Sandra Machin on 01264 353411 and she will be happy to help. Otherwise, you can email the family team at family@bsandi.co.uk">family@bsandi.co.uk or complete our Free Online Enquiry and they will be in touch soon.