Can seperated parents split tax credits/child benefit?

[wrongagain]

Eg. Can dad get child benefit while mum gets tax credits? Or vice versa?
Or do both payments have to be in one parents name and address?
Many thanks

BUT you can be co-erced into signing a form if you have an abusive Ex-P. Who maybe threatens to kill your dc if you don't...

I have seen it happen - one of my friends ended up in a refuge - but didn't even have ChB because her ex-P had refused to let her claim it while they were together, and denied that she had left him when she tried to get it changed into her name. Thus she was also unable to claim TC's for her dc. It took 6 weeks to get it sorted, 6 weeks where she had NO income, it was only the fact that her ex was overheard threatening to kill their dc if she got 'his' money taken off him that anything was sorted - because he got arrested.

There are a heck of a lot of abusive men out there...

We have some of this problem too. We're both students - I am part time & therefore am not entitled to the associated help. XH is full time, but does not have the tax credits, so is not entitled to student finance help. I need the tax credits to live (that is my only income, along with the income support that is linked to the TC because I'm a part time student & HB which does not cover my rent), but the childcare which XH needs when he has DS cannot be subsidised, nor can he get the 'parental learning allowance' grant. My student finance advisor said that we could get a statement from the TC people to say that we share care, but the woman on the phone said absolutely not. We don't want to claim things twice - only one of us would claim HB, for example. We just want to claim what we're each entitled to, which would be the same if we lived together! (The financial situation as students is obviously different to when one of you is working, etc.)

I send back the clothes that they have bought for DS1 - which are usually too small for him - but they never send back the ones that I have bought. When they start doing that, then I will start splitting the TC's and ChB with them again.

Mind you - Ex-H's new partner epected me to split ALL of my ChB and TC's 50-50 with them - despite the fact that I have 3 other dc that are nothing to do with them, and she got funny when she realised that as mine & Ex-H's DS1 was not MY oldest child - she wouldn't be getting as much as she thought - She was most unhappy that I wouldn't split the £20 a week I get for my DD, rather than the £13 a week I get for DS1...

But that's where there should be harsher penalties for domestic violence, the abuser could quite happily take the children and claim all this anyway. Who's to say an abuser wouldn't force the resident parent to hand over the money anyway, even if they don't have the children. In our case an even split is what is needed, and cases like this should be looked at individually, therefore (hopefully) stamping out some financial abuse.

It's not about the abusive situations, obviously the person who receives it at the moment should be the one to make the phone calls to hand it over. It's more about individual situations being looked at more instead of there being one rule for everyone. Everyone's situations are different.

same here. We have 50/50 residency of dsd, but her mum gets all the cb and wtc and doesnt hand any of it over to us. Its a nightmare and we do struggle financially but dh wont even raise the issue with her as she'll go mental and take it out on dsd :(

But these cases aren't looked at by a person, that's the problem - and a computer cannot pick up on these things.

A computer, for example, would find it hard to calculate how my TC's and ChB should be split with, say, my E-H, when I have an older child that I get part of my Chb for (the higher payment), and two younger dc that I get ChB for - only £13 a week is paid WRT to DS1, the dc we share, yet £46 a week is paid for my other 3 dc - they are all on the same claim as multiple dc are just 'added' on - how complex would the computer program have to be to work out that it needed to pay ME £52.50 a week, and my Ex-H £7.50 a week ChB??? And my TC's are even more complex because some of my OTHER dc (not DS1) have the disability premium - but none of that is paid for DS1...

And when I work - I also get a disability top-up on my TC's - money paid WRT MY disability can't be split when it is not paid for DS1...

Basically, the government can't AFFORD a computer system that would be able to cope with all the comple family situations that are out there nowadays!

complex

But there must be someone looking at cases as they investigate when one parent applies for it when the other parent has been receiving it. So there must be someone looking at individual cases otherwise that wouldn't happen.

And how much 'shared care' would qualify for a split in Chb & TC's - where would the line be drawn? In the case of my youngest 2 dc - they both have the same father, but he only has the OLDEST one of the two overnight for ONE night a fortnight - work out the split of TC's and ChB for THAT! Even the CSA are struggling because they two dc have different access arrangements with their father...

But the situations (like mine) can be SO complex it would take a serious mathematician to work out how the money should be split!

DD - no regular access with her father, therefore I keep all TC's and ChB

DS1 - spends 5/14 with his father during term time, but half of all school holidays - how the heckity do they split THAT?

DS2 - spends 1/14 overnight with his father.

DS3 - has same father as DS2 but no overnights as he is still bf and EX-P says he can't cope with overnights until he is 3yo (DS3 is 9mo right now...).

How would YOU work out how to split the TC's and ChB?? Because even I can't, and it's te situation I live in...

Added to which, my Ex-P is abusive...and would HAPPILY take 50% access for just long enough to get 50% of the TC's, and then leave me having to BEG him for the money to feed & clothe the dc...because I would have to be beholden to HIM, and he would feel like he can still control me, and what I spend that money on - I can see that he would make me present receipts to 'prove' what my 50% of the TC's had been spent on, and if I had bought myself ANYTHING (like, say, a coat!) he would then refuse to give me any money.

It's a harsh fact that some men are like this - and if the system seems a bit unfair, yet it is protecting people from situations like this, if it even protects ONE woman from financial abuse like this - then it is a system that should be kept IMO.

Yes, my case is exceptionally complex - but does that mean I shouldn't have the protection of this system? I can (and do) split the TC's when I am being treated fairly by my Ex-H, why should I be financially penalised because of somebody who ISN'T fair?

YES I understand that in your case, MJlovesscareypants, the system is working against you - but surely if there was a system in place through the courts that said that contact-blockers would lose residency, it would solve that issue, without possibly financially penalising people in MY circumstances?

But surely it should be COURT ORDERED rather than through the DWP / HMRC's computer system - because then it gives an abused woman the protection of having a Judge hear the evidence for and against splitting the TC's?

I DO get how unfair it is for you - But a system that automatically splits the TC's / ChB wouldn't allow for informal access arrangements, or for situations where an NRP refuses to have a dc overnight, yet would willingly claim they ARE etc.

And I do understand that there are some God-awful RP's out there, who do what your DP's ex is doing - in fact I have stopped talking to two women who used to be my friends because of them doing exactly what you describe!

But do you not SEE how abusive it IS to get to the point where you have to photograph your dc to 'prove' that they have been with you that day - and courts don't accept that anyway because anyone can use the previous day's paper, and taking a photo at 4pm does not 'prove' in the courts' eyes that the dc spent the whole NIGHT at your house (been there, done that, got the T-shirt...)

I totally get what you are saying, which is why I feel that the correct thing to do is have a transfer of residency where an RP has been contact blocking for a set amount of time - that would be enough to stop MOST RP's that I have come across that are doing the contact-blocking thing - the threat of losing residency, and becoming the NRP. That would solve that issue in one fell swoop.