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Hi All,
My issue is two fold and requires a little context.
I have two children to different mothers. The oldest spends 50% of the time with me after going through the courts (although in reality it is more like 60-70%). I don't pay anything through the CMS for this child because he is with me so much although it is his mother that gets the child benefit. While in reality it should be me receiving this it is not worth the hassle to challenge.
The other child I have no contact with and have to pay £40 a week for through the CMS after the annual review. Thinking this is as a little steep I called them to ensure they were still taking into account the child that resides with me half of the time. To my surprise they said they could not take him into account because I do not receive the child benefit for him. Therein lies problem 1.
Secondly my job has just come to an end as of 31st March. I am currently awaiting security checks so I can transition into my next role but this may not be completed until the end of May. As a result I have no money coming in at present. When I informed the CMS of this they said there was nothing they could do unless it was for 12 weeks or longer. And thus problem 2.
I cannot believe that all the above is correct and having been fobbed off before by the CMS could someone confirm it is right?
Thanks
Jonny
Hi there
I think if you were unemployed, as in signing on, payments would stop, but not 100% on that. If it's a promotion within the same company then I doubt you can do much about it.
As far as taking the child that you share care of, it might be worth appealing that decision as you can claim that he resides with you both and as such you should be entitled to a reduction because of this.
I thought that once you have had an annual review and a new amount is calculated, only if your income rises or falls by over 25% would the CMS take it into account and make an adjustment.
You could speak to the mother that receives the child benefit and ask if you could claim it instead and reimburse her for the amount she is down....just a thought.
Hi Mojo,
Thanks for the quick response!
Strictly speaking I suppose I am unemployed but I am not currently signing on given that I will be transitioning to a new role relatively soon. It will be with a completely different company. It seems that for the CMS to take this into account I will have to apply for jobseekers.....although with having a job offer I wonder if they would agree to process such an application?
Is appealing the decision a possibility? When I spoke to the CMS on the phone yesterday they said they would never take another child into account unless I was claiming the child benefit for them (or someone in my residence was). It seems it is a double edged sword in that I can't claim for the child I have shared care for and as a result have to pay more for my second child.
Unfortunately the other parent of my oldest would not be amenable to changing the claim even if I did reimburse her.
Thanks again for your response.
Jonny
I don't think that's true, if you had a family based arrangement to pay maintenance for a child who doesn't live with you, they would make a reduction for that. As the mother is receiving the child benefit for the child you see,they would consider her to be the receiving parent....do you contribute any extra to the mother?
I don't pay anything directly to her since she receives all the benefits and he is generally with me 4/7 nights per week. I provide everything for when he is with me including clothes, school trips, dinner money, holidays, days out etc etc.
Thanks
Jonny
Hi There,
.
As you don't pay anything to your ex of the eldest and your ex is claiming the child benifits then I think that what CMS are saying is correct, they have to look into who recieves the CB as if they made any exceptions to the ruling then they are open to it being abused, I guess they have to make sure that people don't abuse the system by claiming something that isn't happening. I know in your case it is happening, but they have blanket rules which they have to stick too.
.
If your ex won't allow you to claim CB then there isn't much you can do.
.
I think you are right in what you say too as you have a job lined up, so you wouldn't be able to claim job seekers, and even if you could then it takes a few weeks to set up, so I don't think you would be any better off.
.
GTTS
You could ask your ex to let you claim the child benefit, but still give her bank details for the payment to go into - that way she'll get it with no delay but you get the benefit of claiming.
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