Can my ex claim CB i'm not entitled to?

princessdon

Of course it's fraud! If not ring up the CB department and say "I'm gonna lose the benefit can I give it to my Ex who doesn't have the children bar 1 night a week"

Oh and by the way, he can now claim CTC at £85 pw, free school meals and other child related benefits.

Transfering CB prior to this change wasn't fruadulent as there were no means testing. It is now means tested and as such any attempt to gain the benefit that involves dishonesty is fraud.

I'd imagine the DWP will look closely at claims where the CB changes.

So if it's not fraudulent how will DWP feel about a child being registered at Dads address but not living there and getting Child Benefit, Child Tax and Free School Meals etc. They generally look at where someone lives!

SkyeKnight

princessdon wrote: »

Of course it's fraud! If not ring up the CB department and say "I'm gonna lose the benefit can I give it to my Ex who doesn't have the children bar 1 night a week"

Is this true because you can definitely claim Child Benefit if you work in the UK but have a child who lives in another EU country?? I thought either parent could claim CB?

SkyeKnight

OK, I've looked it up and I think it is fine for the non-resident parent to claim Child Benefit.

See here for example:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:SmxWnWQN9SoJ:www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN06299.pdf+&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgKL9NpY-zSTkqkEEZdFICjRQ_xliGnOPb25EeZc-waLYG5GR3DvP2yHzBuRJPz3pkAQ8ttDPD6lFuaeOHWHwYPCIS1r1CERPSMZEf_URpztJYUHAvC_iGNJ_Ts51wpUNRzEvZ6&sig=AHIEtbTwnUSSfDOaIZxEqYPH9rYkBOVEjw

"The general situation is that a person may be entitled to Child Benefit
for a child if they are responsible for him or her. A person is treated
as "responsible" for a child if the child lives with them, or if they are
contributing towards the mainenance of the child at a rate of at least
the amount of Child Benefit."

Marisco

gobecgo wrote: »

He currently pays £7.50/week towards her care. He gets JSA, CTB and HB.

Twice a week he picks her up from school and has dinner at our house with her/us, leaving just before bedtime. Once a week he has her for about 24 hours,

SkyeKnight wrote: »

OK, I've looked it up and I think it is fine for the non-resident parent to claim Child Benefit.

See here for example:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:SmxWnWQN9SoJ:www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN06299.pdf+&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgKL9NpY-zSTkqkEEZdFICjRQ_xliGnOPb25EeZc-waLYG5GR3DvP2yHzBuRJPz3pkAQ8ttDPD6lFuaeOHWHwYPCIS1r1CERPSMZEf_URpztJYUHAvC_iGNJ_Ts51wpUNRzEvZ6&sig=AHIEtbTwnUSSfDOaIZxEqYPH9rYkBOVEjw

"The general situation is that a person may be entitled to Child Benefit
for a child if they are responsible for him or her. A person is treated
as "responsible" for a child if the child lives with them, or if they are
contributing towards the mainenance of the child at a rate of at least
the amount of Child Benefit."

So how does that equate with what he does? He pays £7.50 a week, I think CB is £20, and he doesn't even provide food for her!! He picks her up from school twice and goes to the op's house to eat, and he has one "overnighter", not really most peoples' idea of shared care!!

princessdon

SkyeKnight wrote: »

Is this true because you can definitely claim Child Benefit if you work in the UK but have a child who lives in another EU country?? I thought either parent could claim CB?

In the past it wasn't means tested. Now it is. To tranfer the benefit in order to claim a benefit you are not entitled to, takes this to a new level.

Poppie68

SkyeKnight wrote: »

OK, I've looked it up and I think it is fine for the non-resident parent to claim Child Benefit.

See here for example:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:SmxWnWQN9SoJ:www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN06299.pdf+&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgKL9NpY-zSTkqkEEZdFICjRQ_xliGnOPb25EeZc-waLYG5GR3DvP2yHzBuRJPz3pkAQ8ttDPD6lFuaeOHWHwYPCIS1r1CERPSMZEf_URpztJYUHAvC_iGNJ_Ts51wpUNRzEvZ6&sig=AHIEtbTwnUSSfDOaIZxEqYPH9rYkBOVEjw

"The general situation is that a person may be entitled to Child Benefit
for a child if they are responsible for him or her. A person is treated
as "responsible" for a child if the child lives with them, or if they are
contributing towards the mainenance of the child at a rate of at least
the amount of Child Benefit."

If i understand the link you provided, it seems to say the 'Higher income child benefit charge' will still apply to the OPs household even if the father does claim, he can only claim if he contributes to the upkeep of the child.
For the OPs household not to have the charge they would have to say the child lived with the father.

SkyeKnight

Poppie68 wrote: »

If i understand the link you provided, it seems to say the 'Higher income child benefit charge' will still apply to the OPs household even if the father does claim, he can only claim if he contributes to the upkeep of the child.
For the OPs household not to have the charge they would have to say the child lived with the father.

Yep, I think you are right - I didn't read all of it. Whoops. So I think the end result is: legally the non-resident parent can claim Child Benefit*, however there is not much point in transferring it since it will be claimed back in tax from the resident parent.

Edited to add: * the non-resident parent can claim CB but would have to increase their maintenance payments to £20/week minimum.

SkyeKnight

princessdon wrote: »

In the past it wasn't means tested. Now it is. To tranfer the benefit in order to claim a benefit you are not entitled to, takes this to a new level.

I was merely trying to establish if it was legal, not if it was moral!!!!

princessdon

SkyeKnight wrote: »

I was merely trying to establish if it was legal, not if it was moral!!!!

But then it opens up a can of worms, they can claim IS (if under 5) CTC so get hundreds of pounds per week they are not entitled to.

It doesn't suprise me that they are looking to close the now loophole. Transferring CB when not means tested wasn't an issue, but now it is I'd expect the DWP to treat it the same as any other means tested benefit and look more closely.

If I was OP - I'd put a few more pennies into my pension and keep the CB, far better an option.

gobecgo

Hey, OP back again.

As it turns out when my OH filled in the HMRC calculator his net deductible income is lower than the 50k threshold (i vastly underestimated both his own pension contributions and his company's when i was guesstimating before i called the CB people). So it looks like we don't lose any of our child benefit at the moment (we're going to double check this and self-assess anyway just in case).

Thanks for all the useful discussion. From what i managed to glean from the HMRC website it WOULD be possible for us to allow my ex to claim the CB, but as someone else noted, they would still need to take OH's income into account because she lives with him - i was not suggesting i lie about where she lives, only that i wanted to make sure she gets her full entitlement due.

I accept that if she doesn't qualify then she doesn't qualify, and i did specifically use the word LEGALLY in my original post.

It is not my DD's fault that her stepdad is soon-to-be-supporting a stay at home parent and 3 kids (baby #3 due in a few weeks) on his just-over-£50k and her own father doesn't have any income and hasn't for over half of her life and doesn't seem in any way inclined to do anything about it. If she is LEGALLY entitled to that money i want her to have it.

I hadn't considered CTC for my ex, i wasn't going to pretend she resided with him more than she actually does, so i don't think he could claim it anyway and i certainly wouldn't support him in doing so by doing a "paper move"! There is no WAY he would seek custody. We have a very amicable arrangement which is FOR her benefit but definitely TO his, if that makes sense. OH and I keep everything very very amicable and pleasant for her sake. By extension this means for him too - I feel very bitter in regard to his financial contribution but there's nothing i can do or say that WON'T ultimately hurt or harm my wee girl so it is how it is. I hope it is the work ethic of this house and not her other which rubs off!

Anyway as i said above, it turns out we luckily fall below the threshold for net deductible income, so it's moot at the moment, and at least i know now for the future, should i need to, that she will be treated the same whichever parent claims.