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

How would you work a system that would have to not only take into account 'simple' cases like your AND complex cases like mine? Without leaving either of us open to abuse?

But how MUCH CTC and ChB, based on one night a week? 1/7? What about if the contact changes during holidays? The computer systems would have to average it out over a year, thus leaving the RP out of pocket during term-time, when in my case I should be getting 9/14 with Ex-H, yet in say, a 2 week holiday, I'd only be getting 7/14. Which means that if they averaged it out, I'd be getting something like 8/14 of the TC's and ChB a fortnight - leaving me with 1 day a week where I had no income to FEED DS1? And Ex-H would be getting one day EXTRA money during term-time, thus making HIM in a financially BETTER situation that me during term time?

MJ - she wouldn't have a choice if it was court ordered (also been THERE as a child...)

I know the current system isn't fair to DECENT men - but whose need for protection is greater? A decent man, or a woman who has just left an abusive relationship? That question opens a whole new can of worms, really - should either be prioritised? No, but if the system is such that ONE group has to be - then which should it be?

It might be OK averaged over the year if you have savings etc to see you through, say, the first term of the school year - but if, like me, you HAVE no other income and are on benefits - you cannot ABSORB a loss like that - you would genuinely struggle to FEED your dc for that extra day each week. What do you suggest in that case?

And while I agree that ALL victims of abuse need protecting - there is a difference between an NRP being contact-blocked and a situation where you may have just got out of a relationship where you were beaten, sexually abused, emotionally abused and financially abused. While I agree that this does happen to some men - it happens to women more frequently.

In that situation, it is not right that the mother should lose out on being protected from further financial abuse.

I don't see what the government can do to fix the current situation that WOULDN'T leave some women open to further abuse.

I have to go out now, but I will come back to this thread later on!

What I don't understand is how they would work out how much you would get in tax credits.

If I claim as a LP, my award is based on my income and number of dependents, but if the award was to be split then they would have to take both incomes into account. I wonder how that would affect the amount?

Could the CB be split and then a claim made on an individual basis - hours worked, income, % of childcare you have.

MJ I agree the situation you describe sounds really unfair.

I think the system on CSA needs changing - they take the disability element of TC's into account too - so if you have a disabled child, and you get with someone who has a previous child - they can take money paid for YOUR disabled child, and pay it to an able-bodied child - which just makes absolutely NO sense.

But then, how does it work if the NRP decides to become a SAHD, for example - and thus has no income to pay maintenance to the RP? Then it becomes a deprivation of income variation, and that's where it becomes more of a 'grey' area, because it may suit the NRP's new family for him to be a SAHD, but it leaves the children from his first relationship with less money.

NONE of the systems work properly, I agree, but if the money isn't there to pay for the new computer systems that would be needed to take EVERY situation into account - then what can, in all honesty, be done? It would cost MILLIONS to design these programs.

And yes, for TC's - BOTH household's income would need to be taken into account - so you could get a situation where :

RP - works, for min wage, is entitled to FULL WTC and CTC, plus the childcare element.

NRP - remarried, both him and partner work, not entitled to WTC or CTC, but only just scraping by with their wages, need 'their' share of TC's to cope with costs of access.

What happens then? Does the RP lose some of her TC's even though the NRP's family wouldn't be eligible - anyone earning over £17K PA gets NO WTC any more - my Ex-p was earning £16.8K pa before we split up, and we got £4.28 a week WTC. And after that level, even CTC drops sharply, so if the NRP's household income (because TC's are based on HOUSEHOLD income - which would mean the NRP's partner's income too) was over about £24K pa - they wouldn't GET any CTC either.

Which is where the complexities are preventing the Government from rectifying this problem - it's impossible to 'penalise' the RP's household income on the basis of the NRP's household income.

But surely, in the case you mention, the loss of the TC's from dc that may not even be the NRP's, is offset by the maintenance paid by THOSE dc's father? That was the idea behind that - to get ALL NRP's paying. Not that that works, for a minute...says the person who had to wait 13 years for maintenance from one NRP...