Does Not Seem Fair

Johnny-Cage

this does not seem fair to me what do you people think and what can i do about it

i have 2 boys with my ex partner and 1 with a another partner i just split up with

i have a joint residence order in place with my ex for my 2 boys
i have a 3 week cycle of care and out of the 21 days i get 10 days and my ex gets 11 days

now my ex gets all the child benefit for both children and i also have to pay her £45 a week throught the csa

that means she gets almost £300 a month for looking after the children
and i get nothing but lose £180 a month

we are both working and on roughly the same amount of wages

except that i also have another child who does not live with me and i pay csa for her to

i am having trouble paying all my bills and my mum is helping me money wise when i do have my kids

is there anything i can do about all this

lil_me

I can't understand why your ex is entitled to all CB and the CSA payments, I know my friend has a similar set up with her ex and she claims for one and he claims for the other to keep it fair. If you're paying for their clothes, food and other needs I can't understand it. However if their mum pays for all their clothes, uniforms, school trips, sends food etc then more understandable.

Johnny-Cage

no i have to buy my own food and my own clothes school uniforms etc
sort there school pack lunch's out when there with me
i pay for all there after school actives when there with me
karate,football and swimming

lil_me

I think you should discuss possibly you claiming for one and her claiming for the other, then an agreement to not pay each other CSA for the child you don't claim for

You might be better off on the following forum area for this sort of advice

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=140

The FNF helpline might be able to help http://www.fnf.org.uk/

Johnny-Cage

that would be the problem there is no way she would let me claim for one chld

i have had to take her to court so many times just to get the joint residence and see my boys

lil_me

Well if that's the way it needs to be done, it'll probably be the route you would have to go down. As soon as you get the CB for one you're responsibility for their CSA payment should, IIRC, stop. Then you'd be entitled to claim from your wife for that child and vice versa so usually an agreement is made not to bother. There are no other benefits available to support you with this and the only way I can see is to claim for one of your children.

Johnny-Cage

how would i go about making a claim for one child when she already claims
would i claim for the eldest or youngest
they are 9 and 5

and thankyou

gairlochgal

Who pays for shoes, clothes, haircuts?

Johnny-Cage

both of us

she has her clothes for them at hers

and i buy my own clothes and shoes,trainers for them to keep at mine
i also buy my own school uniform for them to keep at mine

haircuts we do ourselfs

BARGAINHUNTER!

Surely the fairest thing to do would be for you to claim child benefit and tax credits for one child and she to claim for the other. But I think you would be relying on her goodwill in doing this, as I don't think legally you can force her to do this. Have you contacted CSA to see if you can make a claim against her for looking after the children? Also, have you checked that your CSA payments are correct, as you have the children to stay over with you over half the time, and payment are supposed to be reduced for overnight stays. Have you used a CSA calculator to calculate what you are supposed to be paying? Might be worth seeing a solicitor who specialises in this sort of thing to see if there is anything legally you can do re child benefit and tax credits.

I have two children and I have shared care with my ex. I claim the child benefit and tax credits and I also receive maintenance from my ex. This is because I am on a very low income compared to my ex, and he would probably get any tax credits anyway due to his income.

Zara33

shrouded_1 wrote: »

So you've got four children and are not with any of the mother's of these poor children?

You ask if there is anything you can do - try keeping it in your trousers until you are mature enough to hold onto a relationship. Failing that, stop whinging about actually having to support your own offspring because I don't want to have to.

Perhaps you could possibly read a post properly before you spew your rubbish out. :rolleyes: