Blended family - how does it work with child benefit?

[KtBb]

My ex husband grabbed the child benefit for both of my children when they were born despite earning more than me (another story here!). My new partner and I split our bills 50/50 for our house and our children live with us 50/50. He earns £60, whilst Iam having some periods of difficulty in finding permanent employment and had to claim JSA over the Summer holidays. I still don't have the child benefit. Does anyone have any experience of being in our type of family in this situation - I was unable to claim anything other than JSA. My ex however lives with his new partner and they are claiming 4 lots of child benefit between them for each of the 4 children - my two AND hers.

Would my new partner still have to pay back child benefit because of me? This seems an incredibly unfair system. What are your thoughts here folks?

Many, many thanks for any thoughts that you may have!

Your post is a bit unclear. Do you and your new partner have children? He earns £60? Is that per week, or a typo? Does you partner have his own children and claims child benefit for them?

Hi,

Sorry! My partner has two children from his previous relationship and I have my two. Both sets of our children are with us 50/50. He earns £60k per year. He does not claim child benefit for his children- my ex claims it for my children and always has.

I’m currently scraping by doing bits of supply teaching and am thinking of trying to claim the child benefit, but wanted to see what other mums do in my situation. My partner doesn’t contribute towards my children at all….

What are your thoughts here? 😊

It’s done by household. Currently nobody in your household is claiming child benefit so nobody in your household needs to do anything. If you start claiming child benefit for your children, your partner (as he earns £60k) will need to do a tax return and repay some or all of the child benefit through his tax return. Even though they’re not his kids.

If your ex is claiming child benefit and he earns more than £50k, he should be doing a tax return and repaying some or all of it. If he earns less than £50k but his partner earns more than £50k then the partner should be doing the tax return.

If you claim, your boyfriend’s income is relevant.
Does he earn exactly £60K?
Calculation for CB is net of pension contributions, so you probably could get some actual cash, depending on what his pension contribution is. Nowhere near all though.

However, it’s still worth claiming CB without receiving payment (higher earner doesn’t have to repay it, you can tick a box to claim but not receive). The reason to do this would be to give you NI credit (if child under 12) which if you have periods of unemployment may be a good idea. However, threshold for qualifying years of NI paid is quite low so if you’re supply teaching you may reach it anyway. You could ask CB office to change the award for 1 of your children to you.

However, if you’re not going to get any cash and you don’t need it for NI, it seems petty to try to take it from your ex if he earns below £50K.

Your partner doesn’t have to contribute, as you are 50/50.

My husband had 3 kids from a previous relationship living with him when I moved in with my three. Child benefit was paid to the parent with the eldest child. This was 20 odd years ago though.

@Loobyloo68 you can split it

Thanks, my youngest stepchild is 22 now though, mines 30 so won't get it now 😁