Joint custody & benefits

DMB79

Hi.
Firstly I do apologise if this has been covered already and, if so, please feel free to point me in the direction of the appropriate thread.

My partner and I have recently seperated. We have a son who is
2yrs 8 months old.

We own a house together and were not married so there is no divorce proceedings.

I am not going into the circumstances for our separation but we are more than amicable with each other. It has been decided that she will move out and is moving into a rented property next week. I will stay at the house and cover the mortgage and we'll see how things pan out in the future. Our son is at the forefront of all our decisions and we will be sharing custody.

We both work, I am self employed and run a small, limited company and my ex is part time (3days) teacher. Our individual annual incomes are both around £20-25k each.

So the question is: is one of us legally entitled to any working/child tax credits?
I understand that only one person can claim but is it only applicable if one parent has sole custody (or rather majority of custody and other parent has just visiting rights).
If one of us can claim anything do we have to prove our situation, and the custody arrangements, by going through solicitor etc? Something we'd prefer to avoid if possible.

Thanks for your time.

paddedjohn

The person who the kid lives with and gets child benefit will probably be the eligible parent..

The fact she co owns a property with you may affect her entitlement to housing benefit if she needs to claim