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!!

As expected, then.

I hope you and XP can rebuild an ok relationship over time.

As expected

Now there's no liability for CM as you've officially got 50/50...

How do you feel?
How much worse off are you financially a month?
Are you wishing you left things alone?

Thank you for the honest updating. It will clarify for others that where there is 50/50 parental care and voluntary CM it’s probably safest not to rock the boat regardless of the difference in incomes. Hopefully you will be able to retrieve something with your ex now that this is resolved for the benefit of your children.

Will you tell us what happens with the CMS too please?

That's how it works OP.

You've upset the apple cart by trying to get extra maintenance on top of him already being 50/50.

No, really? Who could have possibly predicted this outcome?

@ProlongedAffair you would be wise to consider dropping the CMS claim and trying to profusely apologise to you Ex for your lapse in judgement and hope he agrees to work on repairing the co-parenting relationship and reverts to how things previously.

You've been incredibly silly, hopefully you now realise this and take steps to correct things for the sake of your children

Well nobody saw that coming…

Stevie Wonder saw that one fucking coming.

I can't believe it.

What about the CMS?

Well, she can only claim for one child now.

But he can now claim from her as he's got one child "registered" to him, so to speak.

If the calculator works out he owes her something, it'll do the same for him. Maybe he'll owe the net difference of, say £30.

Talk about fucking yourself over.

One each is the correct and fairest decision.

Is that right?

Isn't it just a case of 50:50 so neither owes the other anything?

The CMS website is notoriously shite.

It simultaneously states that 50/50 care means zero maintenance for either party, but actually, if you enter in 50/50 care, it comes up with an award, and that award is valid.

Try it.

So no, neither can theoretically claim. But then OP shouldn't have been able to in the first place either and it came up with an amount for her to receive. They will both end up with an amount due to each other for the child that isn't registered to them. His will be slightly more, so she'll get the net difference.

Massively less than the hundreds she was voluntarily receiving each month.

I will update what happens with CMS. I also received a letter from the court about him contesting the CMS amount, I’m guessing this child benefit scenario won’t help it to go in my favour. I honestly thought they would keep the award with me because he can’t receive the money and I genuinely spend it on the children.

No it wont
Although you didn’t listen to any advice, I admire you for coming back to this thread and being honest about what’s happened.
You are likely to come off very badly if you go to court. Best thing you can do now is try to come an amicable agreement with your ex about maintenance
But it won’t be what you are used to getting

The CMS website is notoriously shite.

The website is shit, but it can also only come up with answers to what people input.

The OP had been told, by many people on previous thread, that when she put the scenario through the website it would show an award that wasn't accurate because it assumes that there isn't true 50/50

Why did you think that when you were repeatedly told otherwise on here?

You had a very good agreement with your ex. He was paying considerably more than required as well as having a good co-parenting relationship with him.

And you've blown all of that out the water for something you had been told by many people you were wrong about.

Greed has well and truly bitten you on the backside.

But he could receive the money, and not necessarily have to pay it back in his tax return, either.

He can contribute up to £60k gross to his pension, if he wants to, and that is offset against his taxable income. From what you've said that will probably get him below the high income CB charge threshold.

Why would they decide to give it to you 'because he can't receive it' when that's patently incorrect.

I know some people are a bit dense but haven’t you listened to a single thing everyone on here told you would happen?

We are married have always claimed for one child each, and we both earn over the threshold. Whichever of us earns more in a given year pays both back in the tax return. It’s a couple of boxes to tick. But if one of us lost our job, the CB claim would have meant the Ni towards the state pension was covered.

As claiming it and repaying it is perfectly acceptable and many families do it, the government were never going to make a precedent by not awarding it on salary rather than split of care grounds (as you were told!)

Go and put 50/50 into the website.

I speak from first hand experience.

Here you go.

Literally, put in as if I'm OP.

She gets £80 a week off him. You'll clearly see the "half the time"