Thanks to Shawn for kindly giving me a second chance to make this post.

Is it possible to argue that, if someone is already in receipt of Child Benefit, the birth of another child is a change of circumstances and that, therefore, telling the Jobcentre about the birth (with a view to claiming extra IS; this took place in 2003)amounts to informing the relevant office? (A claim for CB can be made at a JC so this is a relevant office, I think.)

Thank you in advance for any suggestions and sorry if I am missing something really obvious.

One possible problem here could be that Child Benefit now administered by Inland Revenue and not DWP. So may not be classed as a relevant office. Could depend on when CB transferred to IR.

Hi Connolly,

There was some caselaw for those asylum seekers who could get CB by virtue of being in receipt of it prior to 7/10/96. That decided that a claim for an additional child DID NOT give rise to the supersession/revision of the existing award and so they did not lose their transitional protection (which was set to end following a revision). I am not sure if that helps or hinders you (and rather classically- I cannot find the decision which I am blathering about).

I am not sure what you are trying to achieve with this question- if the person told IS about the child's birth and then did not claim child benefit can't IS just pay the full amount of the dependent addition in any event (assuming this all prior to the introduction of tax credits and the problems with that in terms of not being able to claim for a child on IS any more unless already doing so etc etc)- only potential problem would be notional income on the basis that child benefit would be available on application.

Martin

You may well be rght, Martin, although so far the local DWP office has been unable to tell me whether it paid the full depndent addition or not. If it did so then I agree that there is nothing to worry about really.

Having said that, I have always believed that a claimant needed to claim CB in order to establish that the child lives in her/his household.

Thanks for your help, anyway.

When the birth of a child is notified to the IS section,and allowances for children are still in the assessment, IS is increased by the relevant child addition but CHB is assumed and taken in to account.It is up to the parent to claim the CHB from the Revenue. As far as I can remember they took over CHB in April 2003.