A recent appeal case, Re H (A Child) (Appeal: Child Maintenance) [2025] EWHC 2361 (Fam), serves as a useful reminder for parents that child maintenance payments can continue beyond 18 and for the duration of a child’s tertiary education.
Background Facts
- The appellant father, a practising solicitor, and the respondent mother, a non-practising solicitor, were previously married and had a child born in February 2006.
- The parties had existing child and spousal maintenance orders. The original child maintenance order was made on 18 February 2019, in the sum of £350 per month.
- In November 2023, the mother applied for enforcement of the existing maintenance orders. In her skeleton argument, for the hearing in January 2024, she informally requested an extension of the child maintenance order beyond the child’s eighteenth birthday, stating that the child would remain in tertiary education until 31 August 2028. Importantly the skeleton argument/application was submitted to the court before the child turned 18 in February 2024.
- The hearing in January 2024 was adjourned to enable the father to issue an application to reduce the maintenance orders and produce medical evidence to support his application. However, in the end, he did not issue such an application as he had returned to work and could afford to pay the maintenance as ordered.
- At a hearing in April 2024 HHJ Oliver granted the mother’s application to extend the child maintenance order beyond the child’s eighteenth birthday and ordered that it was payable until 31 August 2028.
- The father appealed HHJ Oliver’s order.
Submissions of the Parties
The father argued that he had not been properly notified of the mother’s application to extend the duration of the child maintenance order, and that, in any event, the length of the order extends beyond the child’s tertiary education. He further argued that the circumstances must be exceptional before an order for child maintenance extending beyond a child’s eighteenth birthday can be made.
The respondent argued that her application for an extension of the order was clearly included in her skeleton argument and discussed during the January 2024 hearing. She emphasised that the child would remain in tertiary education until 31 August 2028, which justified the extended order and the financial needs of the child.
The Court’s Decision
The court dismissed the father’s appeal.
Whether or not the father had received the mother’s January 2024 skeleton argument did not matter. During the January 2024 hearing the application to extend the duration of the order was referred to, along with the mother’s reasons for making it and the relevant financial need. As the father was present when those submissions were made he was aware of it. The mother also raised it with him in subsequent email correspondence.
The mother’s informal application detailed in her skeleton argument was sufficient to engage the court’s powers under section 29 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 to extend the duration of the child maintenance order beyond the child’s eighteenth birthday whilst she remained in tertiary education. As the application was made and notified to the father before the child’s eighteenth birthday, the court had the power to increase the duration of the order under section 29.
Further the mother set out a cogent case before HHJ Oliver and the appeal court as to why the date of 31 August 2028 was calculated as the date upon which the child’s tertiary education would end and so the court was entitled to extend the order to 31 August 2028.
The lower court’s order extending the duration of the child maintenance payments until 31 August 2028 was therefore upheld.
Commentary
The case serves as an important reminder for parents that child maintenance can continue beyond the age of 18. It further highlights that an informal application to extend the term of a child maintenance order, provided it is made prior to the child turning 18, may well be sufficient to enable a court to grant an extension.
Parents should be aware that courts can extend child maintenance orders based on the child’s continuing educational needs, which highlights the need to plan for potential financial obligations beyond the child’s eighteenth birthday and the need to make an application to extend prior to the child turning 18 if ongoing child maintenance is sought.
If you have any queries regarding child maintenance or any other aspects of family law, please contact Lindsay Davies or another member of our Family & Matrimonial team.
