Child tax credit

[bigbabyb]

Before you read on, I'm not trying to scan the government or get extra money, I'm just curious to know whether there is a fault in the system.

I have a son and Im about to have another one in two weeks. I already claim claim tax credit for my first child and will do the same for my second, therefore I would have reached my 2 child limit. BUT hypothetically if I had another child could the child's dad then claim child tax credit for the third child? And then say we have another child could he claim for the 4th and be at his two child limit?

I repeat, not trying to find a way to scam just curious.

No because if you have a partner it's a joint claim therefore you reach the 2 child limit as a couple

If you were 'separated' then yes, I believe in theory you could. However, you can't make a new claim for tax credits, so it would have to be Universal Credit.

If you are together which I assume you are if you are considering four kids then it's a joint claim and the limit is 2. If you aren't together then it needs to be the parent who the children mainly reside with who claims. If residency is split 50:50 then I guess it may be possible to claim the way you are suggesting. However the one child threshold is pretty low anyway so there is still no guarantee he would qualify if working.

Also if your partner does not already claim tax credits , he cannot make a new claim, it would be Universal credit.

If you are living together then the claim needs to be joint and you can only claim for two children. If you are living apart then I can’t understand why you are thinking about having more children together.

Simple answer is no.

Reason why is tax credits are no longer open to new claims. So the only way it could work is if your partner had an existing CTC for claim for 1 child he could add another child to it. He would not be able to start a new claim today for example.