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My husband and I have my step-daughter for 2 nights after school and alternate weekends in term time and half the school holidays; save for one year parent A has October and May half term and parent B February half term, and then this is alternated in subsequent years. I would deem this to be equal shared care and would consider that the costs of bringing up the child are the same for both us and her Mum, therefore there should not be any exchange of money. However, Mum chooses to fetch my step-daughter for bedtime on a Sunday evening after her weekend at ours, meaning that she has a handful of extra overnights (literally to put the child to bed and take to school in the morning). The result of this is that my husband is classed as the paying parent and required to pay maintenance. Additionally, we are required to provide all the transport between our respective homes and all the school uniform and clothes - mum does not allow anything she has purchased to be bought to our house, e.g. clothing, tablet for school work etc. This seems a very unfair system and of course Mum gets the child benefit (£84) and a child payment on her Universal Credit (£235).
My husband and I have baby, we are not able to add him to the child maintenance account without a child benefit number, which we are advised they no longer use; so basically any costs associated with my son are ignored. We receive Universal Credit, despite us both working we are both on a low income, and they did calculate a £0 payment because of this and the shared care arrangement; however, I have just received extra pay for holiday entitlement earned during maternity leave - this put our Universal Credit payment to £0, just for that one month. CMS have now said they've had information that we don't receive any state benefits so we now have to pay. We have explained the situation and they've said no benefits were received by us when the assessment was undertaken and they will look again in 12 months - that doesn't seem right so we have challenged this but had no answer. Interestingly in the assessment period they refer to, we had my step-daughter with us for more nights than she was with her Mum because of how the holidays fell! We have also asked them to consider overpayments that we had made during the time we were paying the £0 amount but this has been ignored. We chose not to make the first payment whilst waiting for a response, considering the situation and the fact that the overpayments cover this, but Mum has contacted saying she wants her money and will go to court to get it. CMS have contacted saying they have been advised that no payment has been made but will not reply to the other issues, just say we have to pay.
This all seems like a very unfair system, especially as the payment is only due because I received extra pay in one month - I do not have PR as her stepmum so why are my husband's cms payments affected by my earnings but not by Mum's partners' earnings? There are 33 Sundays a year that she has the child sleep at her house extra to us (works out as 28 when we have both half terms and 38 when she has both half terms) and she already has £234 + £84 a month because of this (£3816/33 = £115.64 to collect her own daughter at bedtime, put her in her bed and take her to school in the morning in the uniform we have provided); why can she ask for money from us in this situation, she's already profiting? Any help or advice is much appreciated
separate question: why are the benefits for a child not shared when there is shared care and why when we are the paying parent not receiving any child benefit do we have to buy school uniform?
Hi, a lot of the questions you are asking are more about the systemic structure of how the CMS works and why it works in that particular way. Unfortunately, for many we just have to accept that this is just the way it is. Eg
Why does it consider overnights only - when designed it was determined that overnight care should be the key factor due to cost, but as we know this is open to abuse by the receiving parent.
Why is your income included but not the mothers partners - it is only included because you and the dad have made a joint universal credit claim where if either of your salaries increases it impacts the UC payment amount. If you both came off UC and had your own salaries then your income would not be included in the calculation (although as you are on low income you cannot afford to do this) . As its the dad who is paying, the mothers income is irrelevant, many mothers are often more well off than the paying dad but this is not considered. It's just the way the system is designed and set up.
It is better to understand how it works and ensure that you navigate the system to your advantage. I'm surprised that you haven't managed to register your son onto the claim as this is something that is definitely considered and will help to reduce the amount that is due to be paid. I don't believe you need to claim child benefit to add your son, do you have a birth certificate? Have you appealed? Sought advice from the CAB? You must however be receiving child benefit for him and therefore the CMS who are part of the DWP must be able to check this anyway.
Also do not go into arrears, otherwise you run the risk of moving to collect and pay and having to pay the Extra 20% collection fees.
All the best.
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