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!!

Im not clear why you should expect anything from him if it's 50/50 on the kids.

It's not his job to fund you forever. Apologies if that sounds harsh but he absolutely has a point here.

I’ve no idea what will happen it will come down to what evidence we’ve both submitted.

What will happen is that you get one CB each. 99% certain of that. I am not sure why you are saying you have “no idea what will happen” because the evidence is that you are equal carers.

Well based on your own evidence you submitted. He will definitely get 1 CB
And as your evidence shows he has had more overnights he may get both.

His own evidence will further support his claim to CB.

If by some crazy error you end up with both this will be overturned once he has been through court for formal 50/50

So which ever way you look at it you have made a huge error and messed what was a reasonable Co parent relationship

@ProlongedAffair are you panicking and did this now as you are aware that there are not many more years to be able to leech his money off him as the kids will be grown up?

He has gone for both of them, but when I spoke to the lady from child benefit she said in most cases of 50/50 they split it equally between the parents. I’ve no idea what will happen it will come down to what evidence we’ve both submitted.

What will happen is that either you'll get one child each on your claim (although that's not an official policy and would likely need agreement from you both) or, as he has the children more atm, he'll get both.

OP has created her very own case study in the principles of 'fuck around and find out'.

Are you trolling? It seems more and more likely you are just on the wind-up at this point.

You MUST know now, after being told over and over, that you're going to end up with less CB and no CM, and any voluntary payments are likely to stop if they haven't already.

You were told, by almost everyone apart from a few bitter ex-wives, on your previous thread, that if you went through with the claim, the outcome would be ruining your co-parenting relationship.

You were warned again on this thread that you were going to destroy your co-parenting relationship. You were advised by multiple people to withdraw your claim and apologise.

You ignored everyone except a few outliers who told you what you want to be true.

Now you are shocked that you have ruined your co-parenting relationship.

I have no idea what your track record is, but in the unlikely event you have been easy to deal with in the past, you are now officially a nightmare ex, a HCBM, and your greed means he wants nothing to do with you. Well done.

I’m starting to think that. Nobody on planet earth can possibly have such a stunning lack of insight as this OP.

So there you go even the people at child benefits confirm it’s usually split 50:50. So he will get one. You will get one. Which means you’ve shot yourself in the foot

CMS will give an amount but the amount is likely to be less than:
what he pays you
plus school fees
plus health insurance
plus all the activities he pays for.

so EVEN if you end up with a higher monthly payment you will end up with
lower monthly total as he will be within his rights to tell you to pay for much of the stuff he currently pays for out of your monthly CMS

@carrotsandtomatoes i don’t think he pays school fees, but pays towards trips? And if he takes one or both children off the health insurance, then they just won’t have health insurance, like most kids don’t.

The CMS website is very clear that in cases of 50:50 shared care, there is no maintenance payable by either party. It's not a grey area.

Very high as it’s 50/50
known it happen a lot

It isn’t black and white
My sister has 50/50 but she gets maintenance as her ex earns a lot more than her (about 12 times as much)
in cases like that child maintenance can be ordered to be paid
She applied for a variation and got it
Im sure you are right that the majority of parents don’t get maintenance for 50/50 care but there are some exceptions

There's no real way to say this better than

AHHhahahahahajahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaa!!!

He's definitely getting one. And if he's lucky and they see the actual facts, he's getting both.

How's grabbing for more money you shouldn't have, when you're already getting money you shouldn't have worked out for you, OP?

This is the very definition of Fuck Around And Find Out.

There's a set amount that that applies to, I can't remember exactly how much it is but it's a lot more than the £100k that OP's ex supposedly earns.

Its not 50/50 care though is it if he's having them 1 extra night a week than you? And you're not primary carer because you sign school slips. You aren't entitled to cm because you used to be the primary carer, cm calculations are based on the current situation, not on previous or future ones. As your children are teenagers, it does come across as a last ditch attempt at a money grab.

@Fruitbat99 it is not one extra night a week, it was one extra night over a several month period

60k is not six figures. And what is it you want? 50/50 but he cover everything? You’re been delusional

Hope he gets one of the child benefit payments, gets it down on note legally that the care arrangement is definitely 50:50, and that because of that no CMS payments are due, then he stops giving you any additional money he has been voluntarily giving you.

I've a feeling your children might start spending more thsn 50% of the time at his place too. Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for OP.

My ex and I agreed to claim for one child each. It took over 3 months for them to switch the payment (which stopped straight away) and was then backdated. I didn’t contest it tho.

My ex and I have a fairly unique set up in that we have a shared account for kids expenses that we both pay equal amounts into. Makes him feel better about ‘paying maintenance’ and financially works fine for me too as we all know kids are expensive! Added bonus he’ll take them out and sort new shoes / coats etc so it’s not always on me.

She doesn't actually say that. She said one extra day compared to me. Which could mean overall or every week.

Either way, hes still had them more than she has and she's not the primary carer.

@Fruitbat99 given the OP talks everywhere about a 50/50 split and in this post about “one extra day” - I think it’s pretty obvious that he had them 46 nights and she 45 nights (or similar) in the last 3 months.

ETA I agree she isn’t the primary carer; they are equal carers (one extra day implies there are an odd number of nights in the period in question, so the odd one would have to be one or other of them)

They awarded one each.