Tax credits

You don't need to claim child benefit to claim tax credits however they could ask questions to ensure the CTC claim is still correct.

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/tax-credits-technical-manual/tctm02205

When deciding main responsibility for a child or qualifying young person, the fact that someone receives Child Benefit for that child or qualifying young person must not be considered.

Child Tax Credits (for the same child) can only be paid to one parent.
When looking at which parent should receive CTC, HMRC will consider who:
- the child normally lives with, and
- has the main responsibility for the child.

"The basic test is that a person is responsible for a child or qualifying young person (QYP) if that child or QYP is normally living with them.

The legislation gives no further guidance on what this means. The HMRC guidance manual states that it should be given its ordinary meaning which is regularly, usually, typically lives with them which allows for temporary or occasional absences.

The normally living with test is supplemented with the main responsibility where a child usually lives with two or more people in different households.

If two or more people make separate claims for CTC for a child or QYP, only one claimant can be treated as responsible for the child or QYP, for tax credit purposes. In such cases, the CTC will be awarded to the person who has main responsibility. Normally both (or all) claimants will decide between them who has main responsibility and make a joint election as to who should receive the CTC. However, if agreement cannot be reached, HMRC will make the decision.

Similarly, main responsibility is also not defined in legislation. HMRC guidance states that it should also be given its ordinary everyday meaning of someone who is normally answerable for, or called to account for, the child or qualifying young person.

This can be quite a difficult test to apply in practice and HMRC have developed a list of factors that can be considered in determining who has main responsibility. The list is not exhaustive but includes the following factors:

who the child or QYP normally lives with and where they keep the majority of their belongings such as clothes, toys
who is responsible for the day to day spending for the child or QYP such as buying clothes, food and providing pocket money
who is the main contact for school/college/nursery/childcare
who is responsible for the health care and hygiene of the child or QYP such as making appointments with the doctor/dentist, doing their laundry
what is the registered address for contact for the school/college/nursery/child care, healthcare
who has legal custody of the child."

https://revenuebenefits.org.uk/tax-credits/guidance/how-do-tax-credits-work/entitlement/ctc-elements/