officially separating

[ErnieAndBernie]

How do you do this? If you are not yet actually divorcing but are separating, how do you make it official so one of you can claim things like council tax discount and child benefit (or whatever it is called these days)? Is it actually possible?

One of you has to move out of the marital home & have their own set of bills, more or less.

Do you have to log it with a solicitor or anything? Like, make it 'official'

To be honest I'm not 100% sure, as far as I know the only thing to be made official is an actual divorce.

You can separate, be living separate and claim benefits/CT relief while still married but living alone.

What you do to make it official is up to you.If one of you moved out then you can claim council tax reduction straight away.
If you have an agreement on finances you can get these written up by a solicitor (but won't be binding as not court approved).
Divorce ends the marriage officially so it's up to you if you want to separate but stay married.It had its benefits and drawbacks.
If you did divorce after 2 years you would then declare the date of separation.
Just separated a month and we will be divorcing rather than 2 year separation.

Thanks all.