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!!

I know he sounds like a bit of a twat, but what would happen if you called/messaged him and said "let's just stop all this nonsense and come to an agreement between us".

You may end up being better off with him transferring you a certain amount rather than risking losing both one benefit and the CMS (or having to pay him a percentage).

It would be easier for him to agree an amount with you rather than paying lawyers and endless paperwork.

Although he may go back on it if there's no legal arrangement, so that is a risk.

If this is the same poster we all think it is from a previous thread where she said she found out he earned more than she thought so wanted to go after it despite the 50:50 care and him paying for a load of extras, then he was already paying her an amount of maintenance they had agreed on even though she wasn’t entitled to it. She got greedy, wanted more, when to CMS and here she is in this situation now where she is going to lose out. So; I doubt he will go back to the previous agreement because she can’t be trusted.

Ah, thank you for the context. I read OP's posts but not the entire thread of PPs comments.

In that case, it is a definite lesson for OP.

These situations really annoy me because it gives misogynistic people ammo against legitimate claims from women.

Were you married?

Mother can't afford the kids' lifestyle by herself? Well, fuck you, kids. I don't care if you have to put up with having two completely different childhoods simultaneously, I'm not paying a penny more than the law says I must. Suck it up.

Why on Earth should he have to pay for the kids to have the same lifestyle at her house that they do at his house? If she wants them to maintain that same lifestyle at both homes then she needs to pay for that.

My daughter has a better lifestyle with me than she does with her dad. I'm not giving him money so that he can maintain the same lifestyle for her at his place. He's welcome to get a better job or another job, it whatever, if he's that concerned about it.

Exactly, not to mention that if you were to (for some bizarre reason) pay him enough to equalise your incomes, he may or may not choose to spend that on your child.

I'm not sure what PP's response would be if both parties shared their income so they had the take-home pay equivalent of £65k, and one party bought a flash car and a hot tub on HP, and then found that their leftover income was much less. The child is still having a lower standard of living at one home than the other, so what happens next?

That's what she's "reading" because that's the only thing that suits her narrative

She's going to lose not the CB for that child, but likely the UC element for that child too.

Because entitled greed.

My partner had exactly this.
She claimed both CB and then tried to make a CMS claim when they do 50/50 - in fact he's more present as she uses after school clubs lots more etc. (He already paid half of everything - uniforms, trips, extra activities etc)
Anyway, he got one of the childrens CB and then put a counter claim in against her for CMS. He will lose most of the CB, but he made the claim as without that, he couldn't do counterclaim of CMS, and she'd have been awarded a lot more.
She is better off by approx £40 a month because he earns more, so has to pay a higher CMS amount, however the loss of child benefit for her has probably evened it out.
She hates the fact he now knows how much she earns and she has to make a payment to him each month too.

Sorry OP but he will get one of the CB and you will have to pay him CMS out of your wages BUT if he's a higher earner then you'd get more from him anyway.

OP your logic is madness.
Why should your ex pay you CM but you not pay him ?
If earning less than your coparent meant zero CM then lots of people would use that loophole and stay less than their ex.
Morally you owe each other CM but as you earn less (and CM is a percentage of income), you will still end up with a positive amount. Isn’t that what you wanted when you put in a claim?
If you want to look up the actual numbers, try a Cm calculator.

OP is there a reason why you’re angry that he’s earning 6 figures? For example if he was financially abusive and pretended that there was no money or wouldn’t get a job when you were together then I understand why the wage might sting but you’re now divorced so you need to do yourself a favour and work through that anger.

Thing is, she's worse off regardless now.

Say she was getting £300 a month through private arrangement, even though Miss Grabby is entitled to nothing. Plus 2 lots of CB, say £150 a month. Plus, two lots of the UC child element, and critically if she rents, the amount due for a property to house 2 children.

She then gets more greedy and goes for CMS on both children, who she doesn't have to look after or pay for, for 6 months (!) of the year. (Fucketh me, the extra cash and spare time to earn I'd have if someone took my kids for 50% of the time!!). So for a snapshot of time, she gets her UC package, her double CB, and say £450 a month CMS for 2 kids. "Win."

The father rightly thinks "wtf" and challenges. Now he'll get the rights to the CB for one kid. Not any money. He'll pay that back. But OP? Ooooh....

Loses the CMS for one kid. So CMS now maybe back to the £300 per month. But now has to pay him CMS. Let's call that £100 per month. So she's £100 worse of in maintenance terms than pre-megagreed. Also loses the CB for one kid. Say £80 per month. Then she loses the child element of UC for that one child, is it about £290 a month? And then she loses the potential housing element of that child's extra bedroom requirement. Can be several more hundred. Although if same sex and similar ages etc they would be expected to share so this won't change.

Just going on the CMS to pay, plus loss of CB, plus loss of UC child element... Miss Greedy has done herself out of £470 a month.

Imagine, poor dot, she's going to have to work harder to earn and provide for her own children in her care for a whole 6mths a year.

Agreed, it's a silly decision really by her!

I might not even lose the CB yet, it’s being decided by the child benefit office so we will see what happens won’t we.

I'd be very surprised if you didn't.
My partner is a higher earner; isn't entitled to keep the money yet still got it awarded.....

How much does he earn?

Yet OP ignores the multiple PPs who are in the same position. She's screwed herself over and has no accountability or awareness of the situation. She's insufferable, greedy and oblivious.

Sounds like bitterness based on him earning more than her and having a nicer life.
That’s the thing about marriage. Once it’s over you don’t get to share everything anymore. This seems to have to over the OPs head. She seems to want the perks of his high income even though they are no longer a couple.

I don't think you're quite understanding that this is entirely irrelevant.

It doesn’t matter. That’s the whole point.

But why would they take it from someone who actually is entitled to the money and give it to someone earning 6 figures who can’t??

But you’re not entitled to it. You only have the children 50%.

It’s been explained to you dozens of times on the thread op.

I consider myself to be the primary carer.

So does your ex

You can consider yourself whatever you like. It doesn’t work on your logic.