Help please

emmatheelf

Hi all, Myself and my partner are putting in a claim for universal credit. We are both self employed and working. 

My stumbling block is the section about claiming for children, as we have 5 children that live with us 50% of the time. I have two children, one of whom I claim child benefit for and the other child their dad claims the money for them, they stay with us 50%. My partner has three children who stay with us 50% of the time and their mother claims child benefits for all three. 

Am I able to include all 5 children in our universal credit claim? Or just the one child we get the child benefit for?
We have a trek of a school run each, mine being a 110 mile round trip school run and my partners being a 126 mile round trip school run. The cost of everything at the moment is phenomenal. 

I hope this makes sense and thanks for any help. 

calcotti

You can include those for whom you are the primary carer. Who gets the HB is not conclusive evidence of who this is but UC will tend to assume the person receiving CB is the primary carer. There cannot be two primary carers for the same child.

pmlindyloo

The guidance for this can be read here:

ADM chapter F1: Child element (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Most relevant is F1056 onwards.

Interestingly it states that an award of CB should not be a deciding factor.

However, it is often used as the basis for an award of the child element.

You can try to claim for all five but please read all the examples before you try to claim.

On what basis did you (and your partner decide) who should be awarded the child benefit?
 
The reason for claiming CB in shared custody are sometimes not straightforward. You said you claim for one child and your ex claims for the other. Why did you reach that decision?  (You needn't answer these questions here, just something to consider)

The examples give ideas about the kind of things that are considered and if there is any ambiguity a decision is ultimately made  by a Decision Maker.

Nannytone

Is the other parent of these chilren receiving any other benefit for the children other than CB?

emmatheelf

Thank you, I’ll have a read of that link pmlindyloo, it’s a bit of a minefield. 

Nannytone, I’m not sure if they do or not. Without being rude towards them, I would assume that they would be getting whatever they were entitled too. 

calcotti

emmatheelf said:..Without being rude towards them, I would assume that they would be getting whatever they were entitled too. 

.. assuming they know what they are entitled to. Not everybody does.

emmatheelf

calcotti said:

emmatheelf said:..Without being rude towards them, I would assume that they would be getting whatever they were entitled too. 

.. assuming they know what they are entitled to. Not everybody does.

Yes, however my assumptions are based on the fact that my children’s father asked in court for me to relinquish one of the cb to him so he’s be able to claim benefits. As with my partners children’s mother, asking to receive child maintenance “on the side” so it doesn’t affect her income status. 

Nannytone

Is the other parents receive tax credits or universal credit for the children, that would prevent you making a claim as benefits can only be claimed for each child by one parent.
If you put your own claim in and it is successful,  any benefit the other parent receives will stop
Child maintenance payments do not affect benefit entitlement