Is this fraud and what to do.

[froggola]

Please no judgement. DH and I have been living apart for a couple of years but still together. Me and kids will move back into with him in September.
When applying for reception place I put his address as our main residence. I also didn’t say DS goes to nursery. As the nursery he goes to would prove that my house not in the borough is his main residence. I know that is wrong but I made the decision in a moment when filling in the form….Ds got offered a place and now school want a home visit. It’s feeling really stressful. What’s the plan? To go there and fake I already live there? Withdraw the application? It’s making me feel uneasy. I’d appreciate honest advice. I wasn’t intentionally deceitful, but I was. by omitting information and lying about my address. …which will be my address by September. If it makes any difference I’m on the deeds and have owned the house got a decade…

Which will then affect things like maintenance, child benefit, etc.

Possible
move in early
Move ds in with his dad early
Tell the la that you made a mistake and used the address you will be at in Sept

Personally if it is important you keep that school, push back the home visit and move ds in early.

His dad can host the visit if he lives there - surely? Unless you’re not being truthful?

Not really, either parent can receive child benefit, it doesn't have to be the one with more care, unless it is being contested. And from what OP has said, any payments for the children will be informal and not via CMS, given that the couple are taking a break, not divorcing

And When the child is asked?

I can’t move back till older DS ends term.

Why not? If he's staying at the same school, he is presumably going to have to travel there from your new address in September. If he isn't, it won't do any harm for him to travel a bit if necessary.

I don’t understand the question in the context of my reply to you.

Chill @froggola
Its your house, you’re on the deeds and from September you will be based there.

Just have the home visit and if it comes up, let the teacher know that you’ve got two places and will have only one by sep.

And kindly… this shouldn’t be making you ‘unwell’. That’s massively disproportionate.

This isn't about judgment but facts. Until quite recently I worked in primary admissions, at a very oversubscribed school. Anyone who thinks that schools and LAs have better things to worry about is wrong, I'm afraid. This was a big deal in my area, where lots of schools were oversubscribed. The LA asked the schools to scrutinise all address evidence very carefully and to report any concerns to the LA so that they could investigate - and this 'evidence' would include any suspicions from the teacher home visit in the summer term that the child didn't really live at the address on the application.

I'm not saying this to try to scare the OP - but she needs to know that in some areas, the LA will absolutely apply the rules very strictly, and if the dad's residence isn't a proper 50/50 address at the time of application (or whatever the address change cut off is), then they absolutely could take the place away. OP might be lucky - the LA might not be very on it in her area, or the schools might be undersubscribed - but she needs to prepare for the possibility of being unlucky.

And if that all seems ridiculously OTT - well, it might feel different if you're the person who loses out on a school place because someone else has used the wrong address. And IME these situations are usually deliberate - people who are genuinely unsure which address they should be using, generally read the rules to find out or phone the LA and ask, before they make the application.

No, you don't. You give the address where the child is living at the time of application, not the address where you think they will be living when they start school. Most LAs say that you cannot use a future address except in very limited circumstances. However, in this particular case the fact OP owns the house may mean she is ok.

Surely this is one of those limited circumstances? It’s his dad’s home, he lives there at least part time, and will be full time from September.

I think dad should have filled out the application instead of mum, but it is the kid’s house. With split up parents, he had two homes.

I'm not sure the OP has actually said whether he lives there part time, unless I've missed something? And even if he does, the rules will probably still say it needs to be completely 50/50 in order to use the dad's address, or to be where he's registered for child benefit etc. In essence, the rule is normally that, if there is clearly a more main address (even if only slightly more 'main'), then that has to be the one used for the application.

I don’t think it’s an issue because you’ll be living there in September by the time he starts. Either parent can make an application using their address anyway.

I’m not sure I’d be getting back together with my husband if he hasn’t actually parented his kids during the separation. I’m assuming the kids have been staying with dad because otherwise… he’s a shit dad and OP shouldn’t be moving back in.

All children with split-up parents have 2 homes, and it's supposed to be the address at which the Child Benefit is received.

The sliver of hope OP has is not that it's his dad's home but the fact that his mum co-owns the home. If it had been his dad's home but a rental there would be much less hope.

This is simply not true, and unhelpful. The address used has to be the child's current address, not a future one. It doesn't matter which parent makes the application - they still have to give the child's main address. Most LAs will allow a change of address before offers are made if the family move house, but they'll have a date cut off to do that, often around Christmas sometime.

Unless she isn't actually going to be living there in September.

All children with split-up parents have 2 homes, and it's supposed to be the address at which the Child Benefit is received.

That is too black and white. If the care is 50/50, often either address can be used. If the parents cannot agree which address is used, matters like who receives the child benefit or where the child is registered with a Gp are taken into account when the LA adjudicates.

Yes, but does he sleep there 7 nights out of every fourteen? He might stay there two or three nights a week - that's not a shit dad, but it's also not a 50/50 arrangement.

School placement has nothing to do with child benefit. If there was an in depth investigation, they may look at that as part of a whole picture but it has nothing to do with the application. Some houses don’t claim it at all, others have split parents and the lower earner claims it even if they’re not the main parent, some split parents claim for one child each. Literally nothing to do with school applications.

Could you not move back home at the end of term, which will be in July? That would also give your younger son the summer holidays to get used to being back there.

I could see a situation where this could happen for non-fraudulent reasons. Higher specialist training rotations in medicine can cover a very wide area. Although there is an attempt to try to make rotations geographically sensible, to ensure adequate training opportunities for all, it isn’t always possible to give people commutes of an hour or less to their base. For example, the whole of Scotland is a deanery.

With antisocial hours working, it is not that uncommon for people to make the difficult decision of moving close to their post for a year, whilst still maintaining the cost of their actual home. Whilst the affected doctor usually lodges, and their partner has to muddle through the working week in terms of childcare, I have known whole families move, particularly when the partner isn’t working and the child not yet in school.

it’s not common, and although I haven’t seen it happen in the year that the family needs to apply for a school place, it is a perfectly plausible scenario.

I’m not sure what happens in that situation. Clearly nobody would want to get a school place 3 hours away from home, just because they happened to be working there for a year at a crucial time.

There must be other jobs with secondments etc that would cause a similar picture.

Hmmm im not convinced this is that big a deal. First of all look at the council guidance re. school places in the house you are about to move to. See what it says about catchment and criteria. You should also be able to find out last year‘s PAN info to see if they were oversubscribed.

Assuming your husband is the child’s father and uou share custody then you should. be able to explain that the child is located at both houses across the week but attends nursery in X Location for convenience. I’ve attended house visits and I promise you we are not the police. It’s mainly to see the child in a comfortable setting and to discuss the child’s needs, any support etc.

Lots of families have slightly left-of-field arrangements so I honestly don’t think you are going to trigger alarm bells. You are soon to move into the house, give the child’s nursery info and if it’s a problem claim Ignorance. I don’t believe any of the staff would flag it to your face. The worst that might happen is a letter in the post - but I doubt it.

Has he got a bedroom there? And dad lives there? The school won't care

Remember a lot of posters on Mumsnet are London and big-city centric where there’s an arms race for certain school places. Assuming it’s a bog standard location and a bog standard school it’s probably not even over subscribed.

Well it is a big deal if she has deprived another child of that place by deliberately lying and attempting to deceive the admissions department. Hope they check up and find you aren’t on the electoral roll, or that the child is registered to a doctor near your current address, or that your child benefit is paid to your current address.