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!!

How can it be in the children’s best interests to remove CB from the parent who can actually get the award? He’s now got one award but no money and is using that to disprove my CMS claim.

Which is precisely the reason he did it, because you put that claim in! He was perfectly fine for you to have both before you went to CMS, then he would have been advised his defence to CMS would be stronger if CB reflected the reality of 50/50 overnights.

What does the court look at for day to day care? Is it similar to child benefit or totally different?

You're either a troll or beyond clueless.

I really hope that this is made up so that there are not actual children dealing with someone so short-sighted that they've caused this much damage and still cannot see that they are totally in the wrong.

You're not going to win in court.

You need to accept this before you do any more damage.

1. It is equal care.
2. You have them 50/50
3. That is what equal care means.
4. Who fills out forms is not relevant to CMS.
5. CMS payments are to reflect the additional costs (food, clothes, electricity, travel etc etc) of one parent having them more than the other, which is not the case here.
6. CMS payments are not a secretarial fee for form completion.

1. Doesn't matter if he's not used it, even him just paying for it is probably favourable to his case, not yours.
2. Doesn't matter, hardly a strenuous exercise is it, filling in your children's details and your contact information is it, what once every few months? Would you like a George Medal for that as well as the child benefit and child support?
3. Doesn't matter, he's entitled to claim it for one of the children now, he could claim it, pay it back, or claim it and adjust his salary so that he only has to pay back a portion of it, or none of it if he so wishes.
4. Probably does matter that he has had them more, shows at a bare minimum that it is exactly 50:50; if not; balanced in his favour.

Don't know how you're not getting this by now, this is either are a troll or you are thicker than a castle wall.

You have lost child benefit for one child already, you will likely lose the CMS award once it's been looked at, and if your ex had any sense, he'd not give you anything voluntarily ever again.

To rebut some of the assumptions in here:

they have private medical and dentistry which he does pay for and organise, but they never used it, it’s always been NHS. Yes he will take them to appointments but I organise them as I’m on the children’s records.

This means nothing. It's a phonecall/form on the occasion that the child is doctor worthy sick. You both take them.

I fill in trip and consent forms for schools more than him. He does pay half but I mostly fill them in.

For fuck sake. Don't embarrass yourself by trying to suggest this counts for something. Seriously. You are going to get laughed out of court.

How can it be in the children’s best interests to remove CB from the parent who can actually get the award? He’s now got one award but no money and is using that to disprove my CMS claim.

You only have the child 50% of the time?? Of two children, you have the equivalent of one child, full time, and one child zero of the time. Why the holy fuck should you get two CB when you're only enrolled to one?? That's fraud.

he has had more overnights, granted, but that will probably level itself out over the year given there’s an odd number of days in a year.

You want to hope it does, because amongst all your pointless self declared form filling, him actually having the children for more overnights counts for something.

You need a lawyer. Because if this thread is an indication of your ability for basic comprehension, you're going to get screwed in court.

1. Ask yourself how was it in children's best interest to blow up your previous good co parenting relationship...

1. My DC has private medical care paid for by my parents - both family and financial court looked at who took them to the appointments whether NHS or private not who pays for it. So in your case he takes them to their appointments, no matter who pays for them, so that goes in his favour
2. They won't care about this. Disregarded.
3. Financial court won't care about whose claiming what and who can make use of it, they'll only care that the children can be provided for in both homes. So the fact you get 1 CB each goes in his favour
4. If he does have more overnights over the course of a few years it could go against you and you be made to pay him CM.

Better hope 4 does work out as 50/50 and they award nil CMS in court or you could find yourself paying him CM for both DC and possibly giving up the one CB you've been awarded.

@ProlongedAffair

Try this.

I'm going to file a small claims court case against you. £500. Because I say I've done admin work that you haven't financially reimbursed me for.

Now. I can send in official forms saying this. I can "maintain" til I'm blue in the face that I feel you owe me £500.

The court will look at my claim. Speak to you, to understand that I fill in maybe an hour of forms, per month, that you don't. Then tell me to grow up and throw my claim out.

Short of Crayola and a sticker chart, there is no simpler way to explain you're about to lose your CMS. All for one child. And at very best, you'll get £25 a week for the other. Probably zero. At worst, they might even make you pay him, because he actually has the children more.

Lol well your options are

• lie about having the kids more
• tell the kids (read: manipulate) that you want to see them more/put them in extra clubs or whatnot so you have evidence of having them more than 50/50
• stop pursuing the CMS claim and accept he may go the extreme pettiness and stop giving you any money for things ??
• set the kids up with their own current accounts he pays into so they can "pay" for their own school trips or clothes - so you're not out of pocket for that stuff if you think he won't go halves anymore
• alternatively itemise everything and email it over to him for half payment. Add him as a contact onto dentist, doctor etc so it is 50/50 everything

The kids are teens so you wont have long left of this - surely they could say at court or what not that they'd like him to be resident parent instead or up the 50/50 - so he could indeed claim CMS from you

He holds all the cards. Your best bet is to drop your claims and try and make nice with him in the hope he'll take pity on you. The more you push this, the more money you're going to lose.

That's not rebutting any assumptions.

You came here, with all your nonsense about filling in more forms for school trips and why the CB was worth more to you than him, and asked what would happen.

You were told what would happen.

You said, "No, that won't happen, because I don't think it should happen."

It happened.

You are STILL saying "Well, that's not what should have happened."

I can see why you ended up divorced if you are incapable of ever accepting that you might be wrong, even when you've been proven wrong.

will the court take into consideration historical information (when I had the children more a few years ago, things I paid for, our relationship history) or will they only be interested in the time since the CMS claim?

With all due respect, given that you yourself are entirely 100% the author of this whole mess, other people making assumptions probably isn’t a stone you want to be throwing.

How many times do you need to be told; it doesn’t matter what happened in the past. It’s about how it works now.

Filling in a few consent form from school doesn’t mean anything.

Why can’t you just accept this?

Because it’s not what she wants to hear. I can’t actually believe this is still going on. Most people would have been too embarrassed to keep banging away at this expecting a different outcome after being proven so spectacularly wrong. .

Oh OP you have messed this up royally! Why didn't you say to him that if he let you keep both CB you would send him half each month so the kids could benefit? I think you can probably say goodbye to him paying half of school trips, uniform etc now. I don't blame him, men on here usually get a rough ride, but it sounds like you had a good Co parenting relationship and you've wrecked that

No.

Current situation is all they will look at.

You could have had them 100% of the time last year. Makes no odds. Things change. It's what is happening now, and going forward that this will be decided on.

They're only interested in now.

Much the same as you were only interested in his current earnings when you put in your claim...

Why would they?

If it was reversed, and you’d done 50/50 for years, and now you had them 100% of the time, would you think it reasonable to base any CMS on the historical 50/50?

I have read all your posts and thought you were ridiculous but possibly a little dim so could forgive that. But to involve your children like this is awful. Please don't put them as piggy in the middle

No.

When you had the children more than 50/50, was he paying you maintenance (either direct or through CMS)?

Because if not, it was open to you to have claimed then based on the split at that time.

No