Paying other parent petrol money

[user1496925107]

Situation is - my daughter needs to get to hospital appointments which would mean a whole day from school by public transport so normally her dad (we are not together and I don’t drive ) takes us in the car which on occasions I have given and offered petrol money as he isn’t working. He says as he’s on benefits I am wrong to offer and he shouldn’t accept money - is this true?

I can get medi cars but it means she will have a longer time out of school. Going by car straight from school is the quicker option so she isn’t losing school time - some appointments are just not available after school time either so it’s hard when the hospital is an hour away by car.

My goodness , no . He’s not making an income off you . You are simply putting petrol in his car because you are in it .

This is his child who needs to be taken to hospital. Why would you need to offer him petrol money? He’s not doing you or his child a favour he’s doing what a parent needs to do for their sick child.

Because he is on a low fixed income, and they are co-parenting together and he is doing all the running around so it’s nice to split those costs and help each other. Not everything needs to be adversarial between split up parents and sometimes you just help out so the other isn’t feeling all the extra burden. Especially if you can afford it.

@user1496925107
Are you putting it into his band account or giving him cash? If you’re offering bank transfers then that could leave him with questions from UC so I’d keep offering cash to cover half the petrol.

I told him that giving him cash would be fine but today he’s refused and saying his car is not road worthy but turned up in the car today! So I questioned if I need to rearrange appointments for a later date or arrange someone else to get us there - it created a kick off moment with him insulting my friends who weren’t even there in my house - I asked him to leave 🤦🏻‍♀️ i just want my daughter to get to her appointments which are important. I agree with sending him money to his account may impact his benefits but to refuse money to help just doesn’t add up.

I really don't think putting the money into his bank account is an actual problem. I gift dd several hundred a month and this was confirmed as fine by universal credit.
Probably right though in the sense that he would have to explain it