need advice for my brother and my nephew

[Linnet]

My brothers girlfriend has walked out and left him and their baby son.
It's such a sad situation and my brother is devastated. He's a very hands on dad and for the first year of my nephews life he was a stay home dad. towards the end of last year my brother got a job and his girlfriend gave up her job but has now decided that she doesn't want to be a mother or be with my brother any longer and has left them.

Everything is a huge mess and I'm trying to help him without seeming to be interfering.

First problem is the flat they have is in her name although my brothers name is on the council tax bill so that is at least proof that he has been staying there. It's a council flat and my brother has checked the tenancy which says that it can be signed over to someone else so he's waiting to see if she'll sign it over to him. Meanwhile though while this is still being decided the rent will be due soon. My brother hasn't been able to work the past couple of weeks as he has nobody to look after the baby so he has no income coming in. If the flat is in his ex girlfriends name can he just not pay the rent for the moment? He has no money to pay it anyway but if the flat is signed over to him and once he's sorted out with childcare etc he will be able to pay it. Would the council accept this?

secondly the child benefit has been getting paid to the girlfriend, now that she has left and seems to have no intention of returning how does he go about getting it paid to him? Does he just phone them up or would she have to write to them?

Lastly the girlfriend has said that she's happy for my brother to have the baby and he seems to think that because they've decided that between themselves that the situation is resolved. But I've told him that he should go to a solicitor to see about getting proper custody of the baby just incase she turns around in 6 months time and changes her mind.

What actually happens in this situation, does anyone know? we know it will go through the courts but will he have to actually go to the courtroom? What sort of paperwork would be involved? what sort of things should he be prepared for?

any advice would be appreciated and he's going to go and see the CAB on Monday but I just thought I'd check on here first.

he should seek legal advice from speacialist family lawyer...
he needs to sort out whether she will sign over tenancy.... he needs to work something out re rent... if he is going to stay there he will be liable for the rent in the future... might be best to keep council informed rather than just not pay. he should investigate eligibility for benefits in short term.
if baby is not living with her she should not be claiming cb. he should tell cb of situation and get cb paid to him.
he should get her wishes re him caring for baby in writing from her asap. to formalise situation he should consider seeking a residence order. would need to make application to court. could be simple process if she consents.
hth.

He should also be entitled to child tax credit once he has the child benifit sorted

Thank you both for your replies.

My brother is now on the way to being organised having spoken to the council who are in the process now of arranging to sign the flat over to him and having told him not to pay the rent until it's in his name as the ex-girlfriend is responsible for it up until then, child benefit have been informed and is being processed, same for the tax credits and he has a solicitor handling the parental residency situation. He qualifies for legal aid and has filled in the forms and the legal aid should be awarded within 6-8 weeks then the solicitor can go to the court to have the residency awarded to my brother.

He's very lucky in that he has his family supporting him and he has the added bonus that his ex's mother is totally on his side and she's doing everything she can to help him as well.

Here's hoping to everything being sorted and finalised within the next couple of months.

Thanks again

If he is the primary carer for the child, he should immediately apply for income support and child tax credit. Once he has that, he should be entitled to claim housing benefit (needs to get tenancy sorted though) and council tax benefit.

Is she cooperative? Would she sign a letter confirming that he is now the primary carer, so that child benefit can be transferred to him? Would she sign a letter to the council re the tenancy?

If he can get her to cooperate, things will be a lot simpler.

Yes Freckle it's all in hand. I thought I'd mentioned the housing benefit but must have missed it out last night. He's applied for income support and his name is in the system for the housing benefit and council tax benefit and once the house is transfered to him it will go through.

The solicitor is handling the parental responsibility situation, he does have a letter that she wrote saying that she was leaving the baby with him and the solicitor has a copy of that.

It's all in hand and moving along just a little slower than my brother would like but we can't do anything about that, these things take time. We're looking forward to everything being settled soon.