IS or JSA!

A couple with three (3) children seperate and decide to share the custody of the children exactly 50/50. i) Am I right in believing that if one of the parents recieves all the child benefit then it is them who will be entitled to claim income support as a lone parent. ii) Would the parent who does not recieve the CB but still looks after the children half of the week be entitled to JSA. iii) If one parent claimed CB for two (2) of the children and the other parent claimed CB for the third child would they then be both entitled to IS even though they actually look after the child/children for exactly half of the week. iv) Lastly am I again right in believing that it is only the parent in reciept of the CB would be entitled to the child tax credits for the same child. Would appreciate peoples’ input in this area. JM

I think the issue is who is “responsible for” which child – this being a legal term. Getting CB can be used to show a claimant is “responsible for” a child for IS purposes, but there are circumstances in which one can be “responsible for” without getting CB.

So in answer to i) if parent A claimed CB for all 3, the parent B is not likely to be able to show they are “responsible” for a child for IS purposes as the claiming of CB will trump any other argument they may have (see CPAG p761-2).

For ii) parent B’s JSA would be unaffected by the claims of the parent A in i) above, obviously so long as parent A can satisfy the other rules for JSA.

For iii) if parent A claimed CB for two children and parent B claimed CB for one, both could claim IS as responsible for a child – but they would also need to make sure the youngest child they were responsible for was under 5.

For iv) CTC has no requirement that the claimant gets CB for the child in the CTC claim. HMRC mistakenly may insist on this, but its not a requirement and so should be challenged.

Many thanks for your reply. In case (ii) just to confirm it’s sinking in, if parent B looks after the 3 kids for half of the week but does NOT recieve the CB then can he/she claim JSA even with the child care commitments that he/she has for half of the week. Must parent B be available for work for lets say 35 hours a week or can he/she satisfy the JSA rules by only being availbale for lets say 16 hours a week. Many thanks.

In the case of situation ii) the issue then I think is whether parent B is “actively seeking work” - a requirement of jobseeking for JSA.

Parent B may be able to agree with the employment Officer that they had “caring responsibilities” and so not be required to look for work for 40hrs pw, but instead only for at least 16 (plus as many as the caring responsibilities will allow) and still have a reasonable chance of securing employment.

See CPAG p437, 445-6