Child benefit

[Immy1]

Wasn’t sure what thread to ask this on, but figure other parents may have an answer.

so my ex wants to claim child benefit for our son. He said there’s a new change that the child doesn’t have to live with you for you to be able to claim it.

he has our son overnight once a week, doesn’t pay or provide for anything extra other than the CMS at £80pm.

i receive UC so have our son on my claim, so obviously I get the extra child allowance and bedroom/housing allowance.

ex wants to claim child benefit so he can get the extra bedroom allowance, says he will give me the extra he gets in child benefit, he just wants to be able to claim housing allowance for the extra bedroom.

this all sounds wrong and fraudulent to me, and I’m not in agreement to it at all.
but wondering if there’s any truth to what he’s saying?

getting nervous he’s going to put a claim in and it’s going to screw me over, I’ve only just got squared up financially after the separation a year ago.

TIA

I'd say no if you have a current claim yourself

Are you currently claiming child benefit yourself?

Yes, he’s on my child benefit claim too.

Definitely not. The person in receipt of child benefit is presumed to have primary responsibility for the child on a day to day basis. If your ex claims the child benefit, you may then lose some of your universal credit, your housing allowance and your ex could put in a claim for maintenance from you. Allowing him to claim when you are the primary carer is a terrible idea.

I don’t think you can both claim child benefit so either they won’t give it to him or your claim will stop.

I think you'll lose your UC child allowance if you aren't the one claiming child benefit and you'll not receive anymore NI credits if that impacts you. It would be worth chatting to UC.

He can't just claim it without your permission, don't worry.

Only 1 person can claim child benefit for a particular child. In theory he could make a counter claim and the CB office would decide who would get it. I'd still say no to him having it as its you that has you child the vast majority of the time

This is what I’m worried about.

for him to get the extra housing/bedroom he would have to put our son on his claim.

i just told him it would put me in a very vulnerable position ie legally I’d be expected to pay CMS as on paper our son would be living with him. And hes told me I have trust issues and should speak to a therapist 🙄

I would simply say no… You are his primary carer and you claim it . No further explanation.

it would fuck you UC up too .

If you’re not the one claiming child benefit you will lose your UC child element, which then will leave you up shits creek.

If he has the CB he can then claim UC for your child, even if he lives with you. Do NOT do this. Madness!

Absolutely tell him to fuck off, cheeky twat. That would leave you in a bad position, universal credits etc. Big brass bollocks on him for even suggesting it though eh? Plonker. Stick to your guns ❤️

You don’t have trust issues, you’re just not prepared to be shafted by a useless ex who only has his child once a week. Stick to your guns.

Does your ex actually think you can both get CB?!

Obviously not he lives with you and you would loose your UC child element plus the bedroom entitlement.

Our housing provider asks that the none resident parent provides proof that they have shared custody and overnight care of the child. This can be in the form of court documentation or a letter from the resident parent confirming the arrangement. Do not let him claim child benefit instead of you- it could cause all kinds of problems further down the line

No nope no nope!!!
It will affect your UC, it may also affect your NI credits and it is fraud. So just no

Absolutely say no.

You don’t have “trust issues”, you are very sensible not to trust him on this!

Do not allow him to claim, challenge it if he tries to claim, you can’t risk your own UC etc being messed up.

Also if you dont work Cb entitles to ni pension credit too

Thank you everyone for your reply’s.

i won’t be agreeing to him receiving the CB, I assume CB would contact me if he does go behind my back and try to put a claim in? And that my CB won’t just be automatically stopped.

he says all he wants is for the 2 bedroom housing allowance, as he currently only gets allowance for a 1 bedroom. He doesn’t want our son to live with him or to even get extra contact time or anything (it wouldn’t suit his life style)
he’s currently being evicted from his flat share so overnight will stop in the next few weeks anyways.

thank you all again for reassuring me.

I think they would contact you to say "Mr Twat waffle has applied for x,y,z." ... I would assume anyways. You could always ring your local citizens advice tomorrow, they might be able to advise.

Stick to your guns @Immy1 , what a cheeky shit your ex sounds.

I would ring CB and inform them what he has told you and his claim is fraudulent.

If you have a written contact agreement send that to them.

We do have an agreement from mediation, I’ll definitely find it out so o have it to hand should I need it. Thank you

Twat waffle is such an accurate description 😂
thanks for making me giggle!

@Immy1 that was the nice version... 🤣 Defo give citizens advice a wee phone just to clarify, but I would assume you'd get notice saying someone else had pur a claim in for the child benefit. Still can't believe the actual cheek of him though.

Don't panic on them just stopping it.

I genuinely stopped claiming mine as was just over the threshold, I agreed with my ex who has our DD 50/50 he should claim it (it all goes into DDs bank anyway!)

Even though I rang to tell them, I still got a letter saying that he'd put in a claim and I had to write to tell them I agreed/ disagreed, and it said clearly if I disagreed then it would be reviewed, with evidence taken about who DD lived with and who contributed to her day to day stuff.
basically it was up to him to try and prove if should be moved from me to him.
As it was, I obviously wrote and got it switched over.

But there is no way they will just switch it over.

Just simply tell him no, he's part of your household and your claim is staying and you don't agree to him claiming it.