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Hi everyone I am hoping someone can help me? I am divorced (coming up to one year) and have one child of 6 who I have had 50/50 care of with my ex. We split everything down the middle for the divorce including care of our daughter so I have never paid any maintenance, and this was fine until she got with the next guy. My ex has got married again and is now in a very lucrative relationship money wise and is chasing me for the Child Benefit plus maintenance. I used to pay her half the Child Benefit until she remarried and then I stopped as I felt she did not need it financially anymore. Legally do I have to pay her anything if I care for my daughter 50% of the time and as I am struggling financially and her household earns in excess of £60k do I have to pay her any of the child benefit or should I just let her claim it as she claims already for her son from a previous relationship? Is she able to go to the CSA as the mother and put a claim in or does it cancel out as we have shared care?? Can anyone guide me to somewhere I can read up on this or advise me please? Thank you
Hello JonnyH
Child maintenance is usually paid to the parent who receives Child Benefit. However, in cases of equal day-to-day care, when there is no identifiable paying parent, the Child Maintenance Service (the Government’s statutory service) would not be able to process an application for child maintenance.
Although there is no requirement to pay statutory maintenance in cases of equal day-to-day care, it can provide a solid foundation for a family-based arrangement.
To find out if you have any obligation to share your daughter’s Child Benefit with her mother, you may wish to contact the government’s revenue and customs department, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). You can find detail of how to contact them on Gov.uk at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk.
For more information on setting up a family-based arrangement, as well as the other ways to set up child maintenance, and for a more personalised service, you can visit the Child Maintenance Options website at http://www.cmoptions.org.
The DWP have a sorting out separation website that you may find useful. It offers help and support to separating and separated families. The link is: https://www.sortingoutseparation.org.uk/.
Regards
William
If she claims the child benefit, that would be all the proof she needs to apply for child maintenance from you and if she stated to them that she has the child more, they are likely to take her word.
As there’s no court order stating that the care of your child is shared equally, it’s a difficult one to prove... if it were me, I would just reinstate the original arrangement of sharing the CB and hope that things will settle down....just my opinion on it.
All the best
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