Child benefit

[alita7]

Hi all, this is a bit premature but I'm the sort of person who has to ask when I think of the question.

I am pregnant with my first. DSD lives with us already and dp claims child benefit for her in his name.

What will/ can happen when our baby is born? I really want to be the one claiming the cb for my child (lots of reasons including how it is proof you are a resident parent), or at least have a joint claim- or will they just add the baby to his claim for DSD.

I don't want to try and fiddle things, and get the first child amount for both of them as, as far as I am aware, you only get £21 for the oldest child living in your home, and get £13? for subsequent children. But I do want to be named on it.
Can we even have separate claims and get the correct amounts for each child without them thinking we are trying to fiddle it?

[brdgrl]

Married or not, I think once you are a 'household', the amounts are set - but you can still have DSD paid to him and your baby paid to you. In other words - you can apply for the CB for your child, and have it paid to you, but at the lower rate.



The HMRC site says:

What happens if two families join together?

Only one child in your family qualifies for the higher rate of Child Benefit. If two families join together, the eldest child in the new family is the one who qualifies for the higher rate. If you are entitled to Child Benefit for any other children in the new family, you will get the lower rate for each of them.

[alita7]

Brilliant thank you :) I saw that on the site, but it didn't say anything about what you're supposed to do if you have a child with one different parent living in the house. I think it probably doesn't cause much of a problem if the father is different as usually it is the mother who claims. I think from the looks of the site, claim for both of them if we wanted to do that, which may have some benefits- for example my bursary people ask to see the child benefit letter. But I think it would be better to keep her on his application really.

[purpleroses]

You can definitely claim for one child each. They are supposed to pay you the lower rate for one of them but when me and my ex did it in fact we both got the first child rate even after we told them this seemed wrong.
It's supposed to be claimed by the main career so in your case it would probably be right that you claim it for the new baby and your DP does for his DD.