| What's Your Problem
? |
| I'm divorced and on Income Support with three children at school. I've heard there have been changes to child support. How are these likely to affect me? |
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If you're applying for child support for the first time,
payments will be calculated in a new way introduced in March. The rules are
simpler to hopefully speed up payments. As a parent with care for the
children, you can keep up to £10 week maintenance without this reducing
your benefit entitlement.
At the moment the old rules will apply to most people who were already paying or receiving maintenance at the beginning of March but this should change in the future. Under the new rules non-resident parents whose income is £200 or more a week will pay maintenance set at 15% of net income for one child; 20% for two children; and 25% for three or more children. If their income is below £200 a week they'll pay reduced rates. If their income is £100 or less a week, they'll pay a flat rate of £5 per week. The calculation will take account of all children in a non-resident parent's current family, including step-children, so that the net income used to calculate maintenance will be reduced by 15% for one child in the current family; 20% for two children; and 25% for three or more children. The calculation won't take account of the income of
the parent with care, the income of either parent's current partner, housing
costs or travel to work costs. It will take into account shared care. This
means if a child stays with a non-resident parent on average one night a
week or more, maintenance will be reduced. In these circumstances,
non-resident parents on benefit won't usually have to pay the £5 a week
flat rate, although technically they're still liable for child support. |
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