Social services not allowing us to claim child benefit when they have given us full care of a child.

[seekerseeker]

My step son was handed over to us by social services 2 months ago because his mother has gone of the rails and was putting him in danger. He has been living with me and his dad a long with his half siblings since and sees his mum for 3 hours a week in a contact centre supervised. His mum is still receiving benefits for my step son (child tax credit and child benefit) we have asked her to pay this money to us on a weekly basis as we are the ones providing food clothing etc for her son but she has refused saying social worker has said she must keep the money. The social worker is "flakey" never can answer a phone call email or fully answer a question of I'm honest.
My point is surely we should be legally aloud to claim benefits for my partners son as he lives with us full time and won't be returning to his mother?

SS don’t have anything to do with child benefits or benefits in general.

I am a foster carer and if you look after a foster child you cannot claim child benefit so that may be the case here if he is not legally their child.
But I don't think the birth parent can claim it though in my experience they often do.
Seems unfair on you I must say .

You don't need to have pr to get child benefit.
I got it for my granddaughter and ss weren't involved at all.
You should claim immediately as it will be backdated to the date of the claim.
Maybe speak to them if you think there might be problems but hopefully it will go through smoothly.
I wasn't asked to prove anything and once you receive child benefit you can apply for other benefits like child tax credits.
A child arrangement order doesn't need a solicitor. I got a form from the court, filled it in, paid £100 (may be more as that was several years ago) and represented myself in court.
I think you would only need a solicitor if the other parent is opposing it.
It was a family court and very friendly and informal. The other parent will be asked to attend but they don't have to and if they don't it won't disrupt proceedings.
As well as giving pr (which your DH already has) it states where the child is to live. It doesn't remove pr from the other parent.
I second contacting Family Rights Group. They have a website and helpline.
Best of luck and hope it all goes well for you.

*flapjack^ The child is living with its dad and his wife.

I may have been ambiguous - its illegal for the non residential mother to keep claiming for a child who doesn't live with her - but I have known sw who have placed barriers in the way of family carers trying to claim the money when they have been looking after a child for a long time _ & I do mean actively putting barriers up & telling family carer they should not claim - the dd does need to be proactive (op even if that means someone else writes letter & gets him to sign! if that is what he wants of course! sometimes families have a designated pa/secretary/ :) & it may be that op dh is effected by the emotions & anxiety that this situation has caused & op is more detached & can help - if that is what he wants & that is what is best for dc) as stated before

Sorry ignore me then !

You can't claim until you have a special guardianship or child arrangement order in place. Your children's services team can make a discretionary payment towards your care of the child. This will be means tested and if you have any chance of the payments continuing once the placement is permanent you must have an SGO. (Fellow SW here in South east)

So much nonsense on this thread.

That last post just demonstrates that social workers are hardly benefit experts.

He's the child's father, he doesn't need a court order, he can apply for child benefit and will just have to prove that the child lives with him.

Emma that's not true, but it does need sorting out. They are married anyway, so can apply together. I think there must be some order in place, I hope the dad already has pr. is this long term or is the plan that mum sorts herself out and takes back care?

This has nothing to do with the Social Worker. Just apply.

Sorry Emma, your last post is correct, I was referring to the previous one. My head is hurting me now! Sorry op.

"Emma that's not true, but it does need sorting out. They are married anyway, so can apply together. I think there must be some order in place, I hope the dad already has pr."

Oh so you're a benefits expert now?!
It's not possible to make a joint claim for child benefit. Only one person can claim it.
The father is likely to have parental rights if he is named on the birth certificate (it depends when he was born).

I wish people would stop talking out of their arse on this thread.

OP if you're confused (I would be in your position!) I suggest you visit or contact Citizens Advice to ask about this. You have already been given the correct advice by some PPs but you've also been given the wrong advice by lots of others. So I wouldn't blame you for confirming with a reliable source!

It's not social services decision as they don't pay it.
Put in a claim.

A residence order does give pr, but in addition to the mother, and dad if he already has it.

I’ve been through this. 9 month fight we had with no CB or tax credits for any of our children (all got stopped while investigated)

Debt coming out of our eyes, it was a fucking nightmare. We had to prove every single step we’d ever made (every docs appt, every dentist appt, school, receipts for clothes for him from shops near our house etc etc) absolute hell. All got back paid though but it still didn’t dent the unpaid bills that had chargeable piled on top.

Keep everything!! They will want absolute proof he’s been living with you, they won’t just take SS word for it

And before anyone asks, my partner worked but I was on maternity and he had to take time off to heal a very emotionally wounded child

Emma don't be snarky. I was talking about residence order. You are right about cb, but you don't need pr to claim. It is complicated and professional advice better
Ppl do talk crap, even I misread op and apologised earlier for wrong info.

No such thing as parental rights, it's parental responsibility.

I don’t think it’s the social workers job so as annoying as they are - their job is to prevent kids getting battered and harmed primarily

It’s for the DSS and you might need a court order to prove it ? Onwards

of course the ex is claiming it and HB etc if applicable,she dosent want to care for the child but also dosent want to forgo all that comes with the child as now she will be treated as an adult with no dependents and if not working will have to attend the job centre etc

shes a bloody disgrace and i bet she wont pay any maintanance in the future

op hope you get it sorted

@AnotherEmma no social workers are not benefits experts but nor do they need to be. They only need to know enough basic information and how to support people to sign post them to make claims and/or assist with certain forms.

OP, this isn’t in the remit of social care and I hope you do contact your local CAB and get some advice. Sounds like the ex has been leading you up the garden path which isn’t fair. Best of luck!

I am a CP social worker so I hope I can help. When a child moves we would encourage that the parent receiving relevant benefits hands them over but you need to inform the relevant agencies and payment to the other parent stops. We usually pay the resident parent during (the now several months) of benefits being sorted on the condition they pay back any back dated payment. To be honest I have never yet known anyone pay back. I am assuming you are not getting any other allowance? A temporary fostering payment would mean you are not entitled to CB/CTC. The public purse will not pay out twice, even if from different pots.

www.gov.uk/child-benefit-child-lives-with-someone-else ???

Would a temporary fostering payment actually be made to a PARENT?

Of course not