The Child Maintenance Service has now taken over from the Child Support Agency in all but some historical cases.  The functions of the CMS are largely similar to those of the CSA, but there has been clarification on one contentious issue.

Regulation 50 of the Child Support Maintenance Calculations Regulations 2012 states that a father is to be treated as the ‘non-resident parent’ “if, and only if, that person provides day to day care to a lesser extent than the Applicant”. This means that where a father provides care to the same extent as the mother then he will not be deemed to the non-resident parent and general consensus is that the Child Maintenance Service will not have any power to make an assessment in the first place. As a result of that, it is anticipated that there would be non-residents parents who seek the same shared care arrangement as the main resident parent to try and avoid the Child Maintenance Service from making an assessment.

However, this does not mean that they will necessarily get away with paying child maintenance as the court would then have jurisdiction under Schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989 and also within divorce proceedings, the court would then have power to make child maintenance orders. In the case of Dickson –v- Rennie [2014] EWHC 4306 (Fam), the court had made an order under Schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989 for the father, in that case to pay the sum of £3,433 per month or £41,200 per year index linked. However, when the case went back before the court, the High Court’s decision is that the court did not have jurisdiction to deal with the case as he was classed as being resident in this country and his income was deemed to be below the Child Maintenance Service cap of £3,000 per week gross. The Child Maintenance Service assessed him as having to pay £26.43 per week or £1,375 per annum which was significantly less than the award of the court.

In the circumstances, it is obviously important that parents make decisions about the care of their children based on what they consider to be the best needs of the children rather than on what they feel would suit their financial circumstances best.

If you need any advice or additional information, please do not hesitate to contact Vicky Medd, head of Family & Mediation Department on 01484 538421.