Marriage Allowance when separated

Cherrygreen54

Hi all. I have a query I was hoping to ask HMRC but it is impossible to get through to anyone.

My parents got married in the 80s but have been separated for the past 20 years (they never divorced or had any kind of legal separation). As such, I am wondering if that means they are still eligible for the marriage allowance despite being unofficially separated? (They meet the rest of the criteria for it but I am just unsure on this point)

thanks in advance!

zedonk

In my experience it doesn't seem to be a problem if you're separated. When I split from my ex a few years back, I informed HMRC but they said the marriage allowance would continue unless (a) my ex asked them to stop it (as she was the one transferring her personal allowance to me) or (b) we got divorced. We didn't divorce for 3-4 years and I continued to benefit from the marriage allowance throughout that time and until the end of the tax year following the divorce. My ex wasn't working and it was an amicable split so she was happy for me to keep getting it.