Single UC claim whilst living with ex

paddedjohn

Op, are you married or divorced? In one sentence you say husband the later you say ex husband, sounds like you are just trying to maximise your benefit entitlement

Clouds88

I am not doing it to ‘maximise my benefit entitlement’ I guess that’s the kind of replies you are going to get on a public forum.

It must be hard to imagine my situation if you have never had to deal with a mentally ill person before so i don’t expect you to understand. Thanks for the replies anyway

KatrinaWaves

We can only comment on what you present. You said you resented him, then went on to say you use him as your only childcare. How are we supposed to gather from that he is mentally ill? Clearly not so ill he cannot look after the children adequately.

You are trying to maximise the benefits by getting him to claim for the children because he is out of work. You even state you will get more money.

If he is so mentally ill, maybe it is worth revisiting the D banding for housing help. Usually people with mental illnesses have somewhat of a higher priority than that. You haven’t claimed he will be taking the children with him to live alone, I assume because he is ‘mentally ill’ so to claim that he is the ‘main carer’ of the children is not accurate.

sheramber

No reason why you can't transfer the child payment to him. Just tell Child Benefit that you are giving up the claim and he is claiming it.
I t does not need to be paid to the mother.

Of course that wouldn't bring in any more money overall which is obviously what you want

calcotti

sheramber wrote: »

No reason why you can't transfer the child payment to him. Just tell Child Benefit that you are giving up the claim and he is claiming it.
I t does not need to be paid to the mother.

Details here https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit-child-lives-with-someone-else

Clouds88

Yes he has severe depression, I do worry about him looking after the children but my eldest is 9 so I know she’d message me with any concerns and I work 90% night shifts so all he has to do is put the youngest to sleep then I’m back in the morning.

I have no one else I can use if we used childcare It would mean he still has to look after them to some degree and I’d probably worry more about him remembering to take/collect/do tea ect.

I stated that he would get £50 more per month. If he had a single claim just him, I would still be ‘entitled’ to my own claim with the kids and that would bring in even more money so that’s why I said he should claim for him and the kids as I don’t want to milk the system by having two claims and hundreds more whilst we don’t need it. I was simply looking for a way to be separate financially so I can do what I want, save my money and eventually buy a house for my children’s future.

I said on the housing form that I wanted him to leave tomorrow and stated his problems and they still put him in band d? I’ve never claimed proper housing benefit or social housing so no clue if that was right or wrong. I just thought what the hell can I do to be separate whilst trying to look out for him as such. But I am still trying to think through my options. I wouldn’t have a clue how he would even get a deposit for a place and then afford the rent if it wasn’t social? Hence giving him a roof under his head here with me.

xylophone

If your husband is well enough to look after the children, ( be the stay at home parent) why not transfer CB to him and work full time yourself?

Clouds88

Did you not just read my post above? He’s okay for what he does, I cannot request nights full time and they are obviously better looked after by me. I use him to get by to get paid 25k part time instead of being on benefits. I’m going to leave this thread now I just wanted to hear from people who might have done the same?

Transferring the child benefit to him does nothing to improve my situation of me supporting my ex still does it.

seashore22

Won't he get the benefits of National Insurance credits if he is the one claiming the child benefit whilst not doing paid work? I'm assuming it goes to fathers too if they are the ones taking care of the children.

Clouds88

Just an update

To anyone who may wonder the same thing or have anything similar I have found a solution!

My husband/ex is going to claim new style ESA (and if they find him ‘suitable’ for work new style JSA) so this will reduce our UC award by how much he gets but it’s not means tested so I can take on extra work as I’ve got an ‘at home’ job offered to me I haven’t accepted yet as I didn’t see the point and I will now feel the benefit of this personally.

Nice to know there is an option where you can benefit from increasing your income and not being made to fully support an adult that cannot work that isn’t actually you fault just bad luck and circumstances.