Does it matter where my DD

[wallababy]

I am seperated from DD's Dad (never married although he is on birth cert and has parental responsibility)
We seperated when she was 6 months old and are now quite amicable.
Since the split we have had shared residency - not through any court order or anything, just through us being amicable and working it out. She spends 4 nights a week with me and 3 nights a week with him.
He pays no maintenance, but shares cost for buying clothes/food/uniform/shoes/toys etc, and she wants for nothing in either house (I do not want nor need maintenance for him - and would find it unethical)

Now, XP was made redundant in May last year, and is now starting to struggle for money.
He has asked if I can sign over my child benefit to him and sign over "residency" to him so that he can claim housing benefit.

Does this really matter? Am I going to "loose" any rights by doing this??
Does he need to?
Any advice would be great......

sorry just noticed the title should have another word on the end "LIVES"

and am I going to "lose" any rights - argh!

Hi I'm not sure on any of this i would advise going and asking a solicitor, you get a free half hour normally they will tell you how it will effect you and your DD. Do you work? what would happen if you lost your job and you needed the CB and needed to claim for HB?

I know nothing of hte law, but I wouldn't do it if I were you.

As Emjxxx says, get your free half hour with a solicitor and check out the long term implications.

you won't lose any "rights" as you both have Parental Responsibility - and all the rights and responsibilities that go with that.

You can't "sign over residency" as there is none - there are no court orders in place. So the child lives in a shared care arrangement.

If he has the child benefit book then he will be deemed by the DWP to be the "parent with care" and will be able to claim all the benefits you probably do (child tax credit, child benefit etc) but more importantly he could make an application for child support from you.

I would leave things as they are.

Your ex has dependent children and the housing authority should take account of that. If proof was needed of this you could write and sign a statement that the child spends X amounds of overnights with you and Y with dad, this has been in place since child was 6 months old...

As a compromise, could you offer to give him your child benefit while he's redundant (if you can afford to)?

Thanks for all your replies. I think he only wants to claim housing benefit really as he has been out of work for over 6 months despite lack of trying. Maybe I'll check with CAB to see if he would be entitled anyway, as you are right there is nothing to say where she lives except that CB gets paid to me.

But what if you, as the parent who actually has DD most of the time, found yourself in a position in which you'd need to claim the benefits?
These are uncertain times and even if they were certain I still wouldn't do it. Sounds fishy to me.
If he was genuinely struggling why would he not ask for a change in the costs you share as a first resort without changing residency arrangements?

you do not need to sign over your cb for him to recive housing benifit, only one parent can claim tax credits, but if he does then you cant.

there is no such thing as residency really as both of you have legal responsibility so you canot actualy sign it over.

i would advice you go with him to the cab, for him to find out about what he can claim. leaving your finances out of it. with you keeping CB. that way you know what has been said. you could agree to split the CB with him for a while, but you carry on claiming. i think you could be at risk of him claiming maintenance from you if you sign over your benifits to him.

if he has been maid reduntant there may be suppirt from housing benifit over this alone.

do you work? I think they changed the rules on Home Responsibilites Protection recently but there is still something in place to protect your NI contributions and therefore your future state pension. If you don't work then hanging on to this is important.

I handed over my claim to CB to my ex as he needed it to be able to claim the Child Element of working tax, and without that he would have been financially in a pickle. This does mean i don't get the HRP though......not a big deal for me as i am covered by my new DP's pension, but this could be an issue for you.

And don't underestimate how it makes you feel emotionally. It took me a long time to get used to the fact that ex is now considered the primary carer for our DS.