On 27 October 2008, the law on child maintenance changed. Because of this, the way child maintenance is handled has changed for parents who are on benefits. The changes that will affect you are as follows:
| Prior to 27 October 2008 | From 27th October 2008 |
|---|---|
| If the parent with care was claiming benefit, they had to use the Child Support Agency to make child maintenance arrangements. | Parents with care can choose to leave the CSA and make their own arrangements for child maintenance with the other parent of their child(ren). If you would like further information on your choices for arranging child maintenance, you may want to contact Child Maintenance Options, a new service set up to support parents in setting up the most effective maintenance arrangement for them. |
| If you stay with the CSA | |
| If the parent with care was on benefit and on the current scheme, they could keep up to £10 a week of any child maintenance collected on their behalf before it affected the amount of benefit they received. If the parent with care was on the old scheme, child maintenance was paid to them by Job Centre Plus as part of their benefit entitlement. |
Any child maintenance collected on your behalf is paid directly to you. |
| Whether you stay with or leave the CSA | |
| If the parent with care is on benefit, it is their responsibility to inform Job Centre Plus of the amount of maintenance received. | |
| Parents on the current scheme - If a parent with care was on benefit, they could keep up to £10 a week of any child maintenance collected on their behalf before it affected the amount of benefit they received. If the parent with care was on the old scheme, child maintenance was paid to them by Job Centre Plus as part of their benefit entitlement. |
Parents with care are able to keep up to £20 a week of any child maintenance paid before it affects the amount of benefit they may receive. |
| If the parent with care was on the old scheme, they would qualify to receive a Child Maintenance Bonus if they stopped claiming benefit. | The Child Maintenance Bonus is coming to an end. Parents with care must satisfy the qualifying criteria and have stopped claiming benefit by 26 November to be entitled to any bonus that may have built up. They then have a further four weeks to claim the bonus. |
For further information on how these changes effect existing cases, please read our Frequently Asked Questions.
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