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Hi,
I have been a single father to my daughter for nearly 5 years and was in receipt of both child benefit and child tax credits. A few months ago my ex-partner ( my daughter's mother ) requested an additional day for her to have my daughter during the week and I agreed to this. Basically my daughter was with me 4 days a week and with her mother 3 days, but this has now changed and i have her for the 3 days. Recently my ex-partner decided to make a counter claim for both child benefit and child tax credits arguing that she now has my daughter for longer during the week than i do!
HMRC in their infinite wisdom have now agreed with my ex-partner and have stopped all payments to me leaving me over £320 a month worse off which will mean I am now unable to afford the rent on my house or even to feed and clothe my daughter when she is with me ( I am currently claiming income support and a part-time student ).
To me this situation has been engineered by my ex-partner purely to get extra money and the result as far as i am concerned is that i am left unable to care for my daughter. Sureley this contravenes my human rights in some way. How do I get HMRC to look again at this matter without them churning out the same robotic responses?
Hi Timmy,
I'm not sure how the payments are worked out but would imagine as your ex now has your daughter for the majority of the time then she would be entitled to the payments,
Is there any way your ex would look at sharing the payment between you on a 60/40 split?
I'm not sure what kind of relationship you have with your ex.
I'm pretty sure Darren is right on this - the system doesn't allow payments to be split proportionally depending on care, so the parent with the most time is the one who gets the benefits.
Hi mate,
Appreciate your comments. HMRC criteria seems to JUST look at who has the child most during a normal week, but my concern is that although the mother now has her for 1 extra day than me each week, I am set to lose £300+ a month and I still somehow need to feed and clothe my daughter for the 3 days a week I do have her. If the mother is unwilling to negotiate a split of the money there is NOTHING that I can do it seems? This is totally unfair, they dont seem to care about the fact I am unemployed at present and that taking the benefit from me will cause financial hardship. By the way the mother is in a position where she doesnt actually need the money.
The obvious question is can you go back to the original arrangement of having your daughter for 4 days a week again? It's wrong that the system works like this, but if that's your only option and you are able to do so, then needs must.
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