Can Grandma claim the child Befefit instead of me?

Dunroamin

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

But I think what the OP is saying is that going to this college and living with the grandmother is what's best for her son.
So that's what they are going to do.

But if, having made that choice, they can get an extra £20 a week for the grandmother then why not?

Except it's far more likely to be £20 off what they pay the GP for the son's keep, so benefiting them instead.

JimmyTheWig

Dunroamin wrote: »

Except it's far more likely to be £20 off what they pay the GP for the son's keep, so benefiting them instead.

Yes, as I said earlier, it seems as though it is one communal pot for the whole family.
Whether it's the parents, the grandmother or the son who get the money isn't really important. From their point of view it's better in "their" pockets than in the government coffers.
Fair enough.

But I don't think that they're sending the kid to this particular college because they'll get £20 a week. I think they're doing it because it's the right thing for him.
If they also get £20 a week out of it then bonus. And that's what I think they're asking here.

duchy

Suppose the post had been from Grandma

My daughter lives in the middle of nowhere and my Grandson would have a long and expensive journey to college every day so (as he has a lot of friends here anyway and spends most weekends here) HE wants to move in with me when college starts-Can I claim anything to help keep him?

People would be falling over themselves telling her to claim CB and CTC (and maybe WTC too if Grandma works 30 hours a week)

I don't think the OP did herself any favours mentioning that it wouldn't be claimable if he lived with her.

janninew

I'm sure the OP isn't sending her Child away because of the Child Benefit changes but I can understand why some thing that when her first sentence of her OP was:

'We are going to be losing the whole of the child benefit with the new changes.'

JimmyTheWig

janninew wrote: »

I'm sure the OP isn't sending her Child away because of the Child Benefit changes but I can understand why some thing that when her first sentence of her OP was:

'We are going to be losing the whole of the child benefit with the new changes.'

But if they were able to claim it, it wouldn't be an issue.

Scenario 1.
OP claims child benefit.
OP gives grandmother £50 a week for son's keep.

Scenario 2.
Grandmother claims child benefit.
OP gives grandmother £30 a week for son's keep.

They're all on the same side. It doesn't matter to them who claims it.
The question is only worth asking if one doesn't qualify when the other does.

tyllwyd

Also, consider two families in a similar situation for example:

Parent A earns £40K, parent B earns £40K, grandma earns £10K - they can claim child benefit.

Parent A earns £60K, parent B earns £0K, grandma earns £1K - they lose child benefit.

The rules over child benefit are in such a muddle, that you can't say that the family in the first situation are genuinely in more need of the money than the second one, so to make it a moral issue whether a particular family claims child benefit or not is a weak argument.

JimmyTheWig

Who's making it a moral issue?

janninew

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

But if they were able to claim it, it wouldn't be an issue.

Scenario 1.
OP claims child benefit.
OP gives grandmother £50 a week for son's keep.

Scenario 2.
Grandmother claims child benefit.
OP gives grandmother £30 a week for son's keep.

They're all on the same side. It doesn't matter to them who claims it.
The question is only worth asking if one doesn't qualify when the other does.

I agree, I just understand why some posters are thinking like they are doing! Why even mention that they will be losing CB and in the first sentence! The OP could just say, son will be living with Gran, can she claim CB for him!

I'm sure to some (and not to me) that next year OP loses CB benefit so Son is sent to live with Grandma so somebody in the family can keep claiming it.

tillycat123

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

But if they were able to claim it, it wouldn't be an issue.

Scenario 1.
OP claims child benefit.
OP gives grandmother £50 a week for son's keep.

Scenario 2.
Grandmother claims child benefit.
OP gives grandmother £30 a week for son's keep.

They're all on the same side. It doesn't matter to them who claims it.
The question is only worth asking if one doesn't qualify when the other does.

Thank you JimmyTheWig for putting it all better than I did initially.

There is no hidden agenda with my initial question as so many seem to think there is. I just did not know if I lost the benefit did it remove the right for someone else who might care for him to do so as well.

ticktack_2

janninew wrote: »

Why even mention that they will be losing CB and in the first sentence! The OP could just say, son will be living with Gran, can she claim CB for him!

The OP's question is reasonable, and the fact that they're losing CB is relevant. The legislation which changed entitlement to CB might also have made a new rule to prevent it being claimed by another family member to avoid losing it. It's not so easy to find this out by reading through the legislation. Perfectly reasonable to ask on here if anybody knows the answer.

The way this legislation has been introduced has not been very well thought out. It wouldn't be surprising if it all got changed again to stop up various loopholes.

This is what happens when inexperienced politicians think it's easy to make changes to a complex welfare system.