Tax Credits / Benefits for the father who as limited access.

Kimitatsu

To be declared as the main carer you must have your daughter for 4 nights a week on average - you could have her for 7 days but it is the nights which count for CSA purposes (mad I know!)

But yes technically one could claim CTC and one ChB but both parties have to agree and it can be a long winded process - last time I had someone do it it took about 12 weeks I think.

Strapped

marksoton wrote: »

Really ?!

I would be amazed to see an example of this happening.

My sister and her ex do this.

marksoton

Kimitatsu wrote: »

To be declared as the main carer you must have your daughter for 4 nights a week on average - you could have her for 7 days but it is the nights which count for CSA purposes (mad I know!)

But yes technically one could claim CTC and one ChB but both parties have to agree and it can be a long winded process - last time I had someone do it it took about 12 weeks I think.

Which in all likely hood will never happen with a case that the CSA are dealing with because if they got on well enough they would not be involved !

tsstss7

Soubrette wrote: »

Simply because the person deemed the NRP is deemed the secondary parent - so they can't register their child even if they are living with them 50% of the time. If their child has an emergency or even a routine visit then they have to go to the GP as a visitor.

You would think in this computer age that it would be easy to share records between the two surgeries.




Sou

But in order for shared care to work at all parents would have to live reasonably close to one another anyway, child is surely registered with a dr close to home(s) so both parents would HAVE to live a reasonable distance from the surgery the child attends.

If parents don't live within a reasonable distance of each other (and thus the childs dr) you would have to question how reasonable,practical and in the interests of the child shared care (presumably meaning mid week care ) would be.

cozzie

tsstss7 wrote: »

But in order for shared care to work at all parents would have to live reasonably close to one another anyway, child is surely registered with a dr close to home(s) so both parents would HAVE to live a reasonable distance from the surgery the child attends.QUOTE]


Even when this is the case, has anyone ever asked the Doctor's surgery to accept the child as having 2 addresses? We have and 'their system doesn't support it'.

Loopy_Girl

Maybe they just assumed (like most people I would imagine) that the parent's would be able to sit down and decide where the GP's surgery is. Providing both parent's have PRO then it shouldn't be an issue.

I'm not always sure this shared care is in the best interest of the child (not aiming this at you specifically btw cozzie). I notice there have been a few threads started and asking questions about it. Surely the most important thing in a child's life is stability and I fail to see how a child can feel stable if it is few days at Mum's, then a few days at Dad's and then back to Mum's and so on and so on.

It's commendable that both parents want to still have a huge input in their child's life but there must be a better way surely?

The children that spend alternate weeks with their parents (on another thread), I just feel really sorry for them. Reading it, it just seems like they are hobos going from house to house and then back again. It's not a reflection on anyone's parenting skills - it's just the way I read it and felt.

tsstss7

Loopy_Girl wrote: »

Maybe they just assumed (like most people I would imagine) that the parent's would be able to sit down and decide where the GP's surgery is. Providing both parent's have PRO then it shouldn't be an issue.

I'm not always sure this shared care is in the best interest of the child (not aiming this at you specifically btw cozzie). I notice there have been a few threads started and asking questions about it. Surely the most important thing in a child's life is stability and I fail to see how a child can feel stable if it is few days at Mum's, then a few days at Dad's and then back to Mum's and so on and so on.

It's commendable that both parents want to still have a huge input in their child's life but there must be a better way surely?

The children that spend alternate weeks with their parents (on another thread), I just feel really sorry for them. Reading it, it just seems like they are hobos going from house to house and then back again. It's not a reflection on anyone's parenting skills - it's just the way I read it and felt.

I so agree.

And really does it matter who's address the childs dr has? This strikes me as just needing to be seen as being equal - maybe you could take it in turns if it means that much to you but I doubt it will influence the childs medical care.

marksoton

Shared care should be the preferred option. It doesn't mean the children have to alternate so frequently though. There is a serious problem with the concept in this country which ties in with all the other policies/legislation that make effective parenting nigh on impossible for both parents.

Granted it's not ideal or possible in all cases but it should be encouraged and embraced. Currently it has all sorts of hurdles put in it's way with the system being so inflexible and there being " reward " for one parent preventing the other from playing a full and active part.

Loopy_Girl

I agree Mark - it should be embraced...but there surely has to be a better way than some examples I have been reading recently?

I think us all - and by us I mean PWC, NRP, NRPP and PWCP - would all want the child's holistic well being to be paramount. A child needs both it's parent's - of course it does - but not at the expenses of feeling unsettled I would imagine.

I don't agree that it is nigh on impossible for both parents to have a full and active part in the child's life. It takes a bit of planning and a huge amount of common sense. Not arguing about whether a GP will take 2 addresses.

What happens if the child needs a passport? What's going to happen then? Shared care is great but the parent's need to sit down and say right, we have shared care but for the purposes of any legal issues whuch require a single address we will use yours/our address.

tsstss7

marksoton wrote: »

Shared care should be the preferred option. It doesn't mean the children have to alternate so frequently though. There is a serious problem with the concept in this country which ties in with all the other policies/legislation that make effective parenting nigh on impossible for both parents.

Granted it's not ideal or possible in all cases but it should be encouraged and embraced. Currently it has all sorts of hurdles put in it's way with the system being so inflexible and there being " reward " for one parent preventing the other from playing a full and active part.

Quite agree - shared care should not mean children are shuttled from one place to another on a frequent basis or treated as a shared "commodity"...not an easy one though just gets easier as they get older and are more adaptable.