Child maintenance but not CSA help

[od1]

Hi, My husband and his ex agreed with the court during their divorce 15 years ago that he would pay for his 3 children with her so much per month with the understanding that payments would stop once each child would reach 18 or the end of full time education, whichever came first. Every payment (and then some) has been made without fail since. The 2 eldest are over 20 with their own families now so we stopped paying for them a while ago. The youngest moved in with her sister when she turned 16 in September 2012. Since then we have been paying her sister the money instead of her mother. Youngest daughter is now in 6th form and maybe pregnant. The sister is also receiving child benefit and child tax credits for the youngest daughter. I don't want to be the wicked stepmother here but we are really struggling ourselves and have just found out that the sister has more income from her total benefits than me and my husbands combined wages. I thought I read somewhere that once a child over 16 moves out of home of their own accord then payments don't have to continue. Can anyone help with a bit of advice please? Thank you and Happy New Year

[Ros1609]

I think its irrelevant how much the sister receives in benefit. Have had a quick look online and the general thought seems to be that payments stop at the start of the term after the child turns 18 or finishes full time education of more then 12 hours per week. Nothing about moving out of home voluntarily etc