Can Grandma claim the child Befefit instead of me?

Hmm71

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

I'm not sure that this plan would pass any sort of "reasonableness" test. I don't think it is reasonable, given what you've said about the situation, to say that your son is now in the care of his grandmother. Therefore I think it would be fraudulent for her to claim the child benefit.

Put it this way, once he goes to college and stays at Grandma's during the week if (and lets hope he doesn't!) he has an accident, who would you like to be contacted first?
I'm guessing that would be you rather than the grandmother, making you the primary carer in my eyes.

In terms of the general situation, I think you need to decide between you all what is best for your son. That may be going to this college and staying at Grandma's during the week. Fair enough.
But I'd like to think you wouldn't make that decission based on whether you get to keep your child benefit or not.

But the OP won't be keeping her/his child benefit. If you read the post again the first thing tillycat said is that they will be losing CHB with all the changes going on. Tillycat just wants to know whether Granny would be able to claim CHB if grandson goes to live with her.

tyllwyd

I think the gran will be able to claim child benefit if her grandson is living with her and neither of his parents claim it. But the question is then whether it will be taken back via his mum/dad's tax bill. Do they count him & his gran as a separate household once he moves out, or is he still part of his parents household?

System

The son is only lodging with the grandma. Is she responsible for him or only providing bed and food?

If you're responsible for a child you can claim Child Benefit. But there may be someone else who pays towards the cost of looking after the child and they also want to claim.
For example, if your child:

• spends part of the week with you and part with someone else

If both you and another person want to claim Child Benefit it's best if you sort out between you who should claim.

This was intended for separated parents and not this situation

JimmyTheWig

Hmm71 wrote: »

But the OP won't be keeping her/his child benefit. If you read the post again the first thing tillycat said is that they will be losing CHB with all the changes going on. Tillycat just wants to know whether Granny would be able to claim CHB if grandson goes to live with her.

I think that in reality they see themselves as a single unit. If any of them can claim child benefit then I see that as them keeping the child benefit.

What I'm saying is don't "send the kid off to Grandma's" just so someone can claim the child benefit for him.

looby75

My friends daughter lives with her grandparents for the same reason as your son is considering living with his gran. They claim CTC and CB for her as they provide all food, clothing etc, it was never questioned, all my friend had to do was confirm to CB that her daughter was now living with her grandparents so it can be done.

I'm not sure if the fact you would no longer be able to claim CB will sound any alarm bells though, it wasn't an issue with my friend.

janninew

I wonder if Gran could claim maintenance of you as well to put towards your sons upkeep, I'm sure £20.00 won't be enough to keep a growing teenager for a week!

Cornish_piskie

I think it's possible that grandma would be able to claim the child benefit if he is indeed living with her. It's not like you would gain financially from it, in fact I would guess you would be worse off as you would presumably be paying grandma for his outgoings (food, any travel costs and extras) seeing that £20.30 wouldn't cover the cost of a hungry teenager!

tillycat123

Thanks everyone for your thoughts on this much appreciated. He spends weekends and holidays with Grandma already as she helps us out, so I'm going to see about doing this sooner rather than later.

Hmm71

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

I think that in reality they see themselves as a single unit. If any of them can claim child benefit then I see that as them keeping the child benefit.

What I'm saying is don't "send the kid off to Grandma's" just so someone can claim the child benefit for him.

Fair enough Jimmythe Wig but I'm sure that's not why Tillycat is letting her son go, just so someone else can claim for him. He wants to do a course at the college near Grandma's and it sounds like living with his Grandma would be the best thing as it's closer for college and his friends.

Dunroamin

Is he planning to go to university after college?

I wonder whether fiddling the student grant/loan system is the main reason for this plan because it seems a lot of fuss and bother for the small amount of money involved at this stage.