Child Benefit Rival Claim Ex Partner Earning Loads!!!!!

[ProlongedAffair]

Me and my ex share 50/50 of our two children, it’s not court ordered but has been in place for the past few years. A few months ago I put in a claim for CMS and was awarded it, they see me as the primary carer because I get both children’s child benefits. I also discovered my ex is earning a 6 figure salary.

Last week I got a letter from child benefit saying that he is challenging my claim. I said to the lady that he earns too much to claim and I suspect he’s only claiming so he can try to get out of CMS. She told me that because he has the children for half the time and child benefit isn’t means tested, the likelihood is they will award child benefit one each! Surely that can’t be correct, can anyone advise who has been through their rival claims process?? He will then be able to claim CMS from me!!

But overall, you'd be getting far far more CMS off him than he'd be getting off you. Given that you're lucky to be getting CMS at all if the split is 50:50 you'd still be better off

Child benefit will be based on who the main carer is. Even with 50/50 one parent will do more in terms of life admin & general bits. Who pays for school trips? Who takes them to the dentist? What is their registered address at school/Dr/dentist. Who pays for extra curricular activities/jackets/shoes ...

I don't know your situation, and this isn't my area anyway, so I can't tell you what to do, and in case-by-case decisions (which is what you would be seeking) you can't "make sure" of a specific outcome, by definition, anyway.

I suspect it's fairly rare for disputes to happen with one side not able to claim any of the CHB money due to high earnings, simply because people on more than £80,000 a year are relatively unusual in the workforce. So it's not the standard case, where both sides will gain from the CHB. That would be the argument I would make, if I were in your shoes - that it removes funds that could benefit the children from their lives, because he is claiming something that he will not benefit from, whereas you do, and you can therefore spend it on the kids. But I certainly can't tell you if it would succeed or not. I have no idea. Benefits are really complex.

The best bet might be to speak to the CAB and ask a benefit advisor to support you. The CAB aren't great at complex legal disputes, but certainly a decade or so ago (which was when I used to volunteer), they were excellent on more complex benefit situations. They had specialist advisors to deal with them.

I'd also think about whether the acrimony is worth the money. You have two kids together; battling parents will be worse for them than just about anything else, and this will guarantee a drawn-out fight. Personally, unless it would risk the roof over our heads, and unless as I mentioned you were screwed over by a career hit in the early years and left high and dry, I think I'd let this go - for my own mental health, and above all the children's. But I don't know your situation, so I appreciate that may not be that simple, or even possible.

Congratulations, you’ve played yourself.

I think you need to start thinking about your children and take responsibility for supporting them yourself when you have them (as you should). His higher earnings are for him and to support his children when he has them and with uniform etc. It isn’t there to subsidise your lifestyle and income.

Be very careful about lying and pushing this matter. He could apply to the court for more than 50/50 custody and if he can show you’ve been willing to lie and manipulate, they may well feel he is better placed to have them more of the time.

Nope

Your speaking to a brick wall with this one unfortunately.

this. I suspect he is fully aware that he won’t actually gain the money from CB as he is above threshold and will have to pay it back- which is why he was originally happy for OP to claim it for both children originally. He is only now claiming it to counteract the narrative that she is the primary carer, thus allowing her to claim cms from him. The reality is they have 50:50 joint custody, he pays for 50% of everything.

IMO OP got a bit greedy, now she may end up paying the price for that, and either way may quite possibly lose an amicable co-parenting relationship. Which is to everyone’s detriment.

I know a few people in this situation, in all 3 cases the CB was split between the parents (1 each) as the custody was equally shared. Word of warning- mum in one case tried to unilaterally change custody in her favour (so from 50:50 to something more like 75:25) to try and circumvent this/get more money via maintenance. It did not play out at all well for her, as it was judged (absolutely accurately) that she had not sought to make these changes in the best interests of her children, but for the benefit of her bank balance. A decision I know she now bitterly regrets because it negatively impacted her relationship with the child old enough to work out what was happening (he resented his mother trying to restrict time with dad for no good reason), destroyed what had been an amicable (if quite formal) co-parenting relationship, and she is worse off financially (as her older child now lives with his father by choice). Careful what you wish for and all that.

You shouldn’t keep both claims . It would not be fair or right so why would you ?

He can’t even receive any money though so how is that fair?

Yeah, if it's a High Court decision that is exactly what that means. Not that it will go to court - a JR is super, super, super unlikely, to the point of invisibility - but the JR on this exact issue absolutely determines the decisions made on it in lower courts, unless and until a new, equal or higher decision overturns it.

So in this country we have statute, and then also delegated regulations (rules that stem from statute - from Acts of Parliament) which set out the framework, and then judges interpret the law. And yes, previous cases determine the law, moving forward. They are known as legal precedents and they are vital to our system of law. (To complicate things a bit more the government also issue legal guidance, to help interpret statute, but that isn't law and can't amend it nor bind - just has to be given due attention.)

The most junior form of court is a First Tier Tribunal. Those decisions rely on previous caselaw to decide what is correct, but their decisions don't bind any other cases. They're case by case and individually determined. We have them for eg employment disputes, SEND appeals, and benefit appeals. Appeals from them go to the Upper Tribunal, whose decisions DO bind lower Tribunal cases.

Separately, and massively more formally and seriously, you have Judicial Review, which is the nuclear button. Cases go straight to the High Court and are decided by senior judges, and they DO bind everyone else. They decide what is and is not lawful and a JR decision is a massive, massive deal. And that "ONE court case" you refer to was a Judicial Review. That's a big fucking deal and yes, it absolutely binds how the law can be interpreted by everyone else unless and until that's appealed in its own right and goes up even higher (to the Appeal Court, and then after that the only option is the Supreme Court).

That's how our legal system works. The family courts are case-by-case too - so, every decision will turn on its own facts - but also rely on statute and precedents from the higher courts.

The easiest way to describe it is like a massive game of legal Top Trumps.

Given you have been apart for quite some time and only recently claimed CB, what was the impetus for your claim? A drop in your income, a change in circumstances, or finding out about your ex’s income, or something else such one of your cohabiting with a new partner? Given you freely admit to 50/50, I think the CB is likely to be split. I have certainly heard of cases where this has happened.

maybe he is claiming it to give back to gov as he heard Reeves needing to cut the benefits bill?

I’ve asked this twice and op hasn’t addressed it. Just keeps asking if he will get paid the c.b for one kid. .

yes he has a chance of getting it as other posters have already indicated

Because you are both “primary “ carers based on 50/50 split. So neither of you should be claiming more than the other (just to benefit financially).

if you receive universal credit that is also linked to child benefit by the way so if your ex’s claim is successful you won’t receive UC for the one child.

You know exactly why it’s fair, he will be able to reduce the CMS you’ve claimed from him and put in a claim for CMS from you to try and balance out the money you’re taking from him. You’ll still likely be better off though compared to pre-CMS, just not as well off as right now

Because you have true 50/50 care, and DWP may well consider the fairness of two parents, with equal and shared care, meaning the CHB allocation results in one paying the other substantial CM, OP. It's the loss of that that is the problem, yes - the CM for one of the kids?

They will consider this on what is fair in the circumstances. Your best bet is the argument you just made, but he will make the other argument, and that may carry the day.

And if the reality is shared care 50/50, then yeah, you absolutely need to be honest about that to DWP. Because that's the right thing to do, but also because if you try to fudge that and he proves the reality, you will ensure a decision you won't like, I suspect.

Because it’s 50:50. He is entitled to be listed as the main parent for at least one of this children
You brought this on yourself by claiming child maintenance. If the CMS have decided that he needs to pay despite 50:50 then he is well within his rights to have that limited to one child by having CB for one child put in his name. It’s fair because it’s 50:50. Doesn’t matter if he doesn’t receive the money.

I think this is a case where "no response is a response."

I think so and I wasn’t trying to have a go. Was looking to give advice based on the answers/info.

We both do different caring activities in our time and pay for things whilst the children are with us, as for where the children are registered, both of us with the school but I am solely registered on the children’s medical records which they mostly use but he does provide them with private medical and dentist etc.

@Imbusytodaysorry @steff13

So I must mention this in my response?

And you still wanted child maintenance.

He is going to be awarded CB for one kid. He will then use that to limit his liability with CM. It’ll change to a one child claim and then he can claim against you to reduce it further and just pay the difference or they may scrap the award completely.

And you’ve also lost the amicable co-parenting relationship you had because you got pound signs in your eyes.

Once he’s established that care is 50/50 I believe he will not be liable to pay maintenance at all.

So she’s going to worse off.