Child benefit for ex-partner of high earner

[Bluebaron1]

can my ex claim Child benefit for our children if we are not together?

i’m a high earner so normally we would be exempt.

If there is no high earner in the household and they are primary carer of the dc.

You can claim CB even if you are a high earner, but you'll hang to complete a tax return and pay it all back, so there's no point doing so. If your ex also helps provide for your children and isn't a high earner (and isn't loving with a high earner either) you could suggest they claim it instead. You don't have to be the main carer for children to claim if the other parent chooses not to claim it.

Would he still be seeing the children and contributing towards their upkeep?
Yes he could make a claim if he pays an amount equal to the CB amount

You could also make a claim and opt out of payment and then your child/children would get their NI numbers automatically when they turn 16 and you wouldn't have any money to pay back

The inland revenue do also ask you in a tax return whether you receive money from anyone else who gets CB for your children, but I always answered no because I simply told my ex that I wasn't claiming CB any more and he could do so if he wanted. I was never told by the government or anyone else whether he'd bothered to do so. I don't see how the Inland revenue would have any means of knowing who your ex is and whether they get CB for your children.

Ok so be clear:

my ex can claim for our joint children even though I’m a high earner so long as we don’t live together?

I don’t have to declare any of that on my tax return as we are separated and it’s basically her money.

This is regardless of any Child maintenance provision.

Sorry should have made it clear that my ex is the primary care giver.

no because it determines residency so you should be very careful.

Ah yes then if they are the parent with care

Yes, it's fairly common for couples where one of them's high earnings affect Child Benefit to seperate. If the other one, with earnings below the HR threshold, is the main carer then they claim CB just the same as any other single parent.

Thanks.

Several mentions of being primary carer - that’s not true. You only have to be “responsible” for the child, you don’t have to be the person doing the most nights per week.

And it isn’t used to determine residency, though it might be used as part of building up an overall picture.

Yes your ex can definitely claim in those circumstances as long as she's not living with a high earner. Your earnings won't matter any more now you're not living together (regardless of how much child support you pay her)

How did you get on with this @Bluebaron1? I am in a similar situation. My partner is a high earner so I stopped my claim. My ex now claims. My partner has just received a tax request for the child benefit. We are getting conflicting information from child benefit phone-in. Currently looks like my partner has to be taxed on my ex-husbands benefit!!