Maintenance

This. Also if DWP ever found out DD didn't live with him he'd be in trouble and he might say you knew to drag you into it. You are enabling him to commit fraud by not reporting him. You could claim the CB and use it for your DD school uniform.

Go through CMS. He should pay at least that amount for his DD. If DD does not live with him why can he claim UC for her and why don't you claim the child benefit as she's with you most of the time?

OP it sounds to me you are trying to keep everything amicable and civil for your daughter. That is admirable and should be the case where possible. The child benefit cap has been raised to £60k, but it may be best to speak to him first rather than go down the legal route.

In that case you should be receiving the CB. And strictly speaking the child maintenance calculations are based on the assumption that you'd be the parent getting the CB (certainly not that you aren't and he is). So think of the child benefit as an extra £50 a week your way - £25 less to him, £25 more to you.

Also on child benefit, once you get it back with you (as you should):

Even once you're over 60k, then you wont actually need to pay any CB back until your 'post pension contribution salary' is over 60k. So if you earn 65k gross but give up 5k of that direct to a workplace pension and then the relevant amount for paying back CB would only be 60k (and so you would still keep ALL The CB). This lower amount should be on your p60.

Similarly, even if your post workplace pension salary IS over 60k, then its very tax efficient to then pay some money into a SIPP:

For example, if you earned 65k you'd be asked to pay back 25% of the child benefit (that's how it works, you still get all of it upfront but then do a tax return stating how much you CB you got and how much you earned as per your p60).

I think 25% of CB for one child for one year would mean paying around £325 back. To avoid this, all you'd need to do would be to pay around £1200 into a SIPP (100 a month). The SIPP provider would top this up to 1500 (300 extra) which gives some extra pension for you down the line. AND you'd be eligible to claim back ANOTHER 20% of that grand total of 1500 (ie 300) via tax return cos you're a higher rate tax payer. That 300 you'd be owed by HMRC would then offset the similar amount you'd owe them for paying back CB in your tax return.

Sounds complicated (especially if youve never done an annual self assessment before as i hadnt), but the stuff you need to put into your annual tax return for all this isn't that difficult or long winded in the end.

Whilst either parent can claim CB I very much doubt this is the case with UC, as that money is for the day to day cost of raising a child, which he doesn’t have. Yes child benefit cap was increased at the last budget so if earning under 60k you would get to keep all of it. He’s taking the p, I’d remind him he gets the CB and UC so has plenty of opportunity to save to go on holiday. If he’s getting his income topped up and doesn’t have many child costs he’s taking you for a mug.

@MeridianB i agree with all this that you have said, he’s using his own daughter to gain money off her.
It is 100% fraud to claim for her as he would have had to have lied to uc to say she lives with him. I think you need to confront this OP, claim back the cb in your own name and report him for his fraudulent behaviour. He’s in the wrong here not you.

Adding insult to injury, he’s not even spending it on DD, as he’s blaming you for not having the money to do anything nice with her AND underpaying maintenance AND asking to skip a month.

It would be interesting to ask him how much he is paid each month in CB and UC on the basis of being a FT parent, and how much of that is spent on DD or paid to you.

He’s fleecing his own daughter, her mother and taxpayers. And still complaining!

@askmenothing the rate for your child is £287.92 if she was born after 2017 before that it’s over £300 a month. He’s committing fraud. You need to report him because he has cheek pocketing this each month and not paying you proper amount in maintenance.

He shouldn’t be claiming uc for your daughter as she’s not living with him full time and I’m pretty sure it’s the same for child benefit. So let me get this straight he only has her barely a week out of the month and claims full benefits for her living at his home full time. Did you know he shouldn’t be doing this ?

Claim CB yourself. I think the cap is now £80k? (But you will not get the full amount after 60k).
Who banks the UC and CB at the moment? Him? Or you? It's fraud either way....but if he is not paying you what CMS say AND is also banking the benefits, you're definitely not being unreasonable

The threshold has just gone up hasn't it?

Get the child benefit back. She lives with you the majority of the time so he shouldn't be claiming it. The fact he's also getting UC because of it, then disputing maintenance. No.

You could both get into trouble.

Income thresholds for CB were increased this year - 60k starting taper, up to 80k for full withdrawal. So it's possible to be a higher rate tax payer and still eligible for all/some CB.

It is fraud to claim UC if she doesn't live with him. Aso the resident parent is eligible for child benefit.

@askmenothing Go via CMS.
Claim the CB and pay part of it back, or just don't claim it.
You know about the fraud and are enabling it.
What does he pay you?
Does he work?
Just think he's getting £80 odd every 4 weeks CB + whatever UC are topping him up?

Thats a form of alienation surely?

Claiming child benefit and UC when he isn't the resident parent is fraud.

Be very careful as he could claim you are somehow complicit in this fraud. You need to report him asap to cover your back.

Your first step is to inform child benefit you are the resident parent … He will have I think 12 weeks to respond , dispute claim ..

that is your first step in getting control ..

then go to the cms .

to go through cms you pay £20 to open the case.. they will look at his income through HMRC if he agrees to private payment, no charge but if he doesn’t pay you can report . They will also check his income yearly

He should be using the child benefit for uniform!

Go through CMS.

Report him for benefit fraud.

Claim child benefit. Even if it means you're paying a portion back.

He's a terrible father.

Explain to your daughter how maintenance works and why.
When she's older I promise she'll realise he's the deadbeat saying things like that. I did.