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Couple with shared residency of their child - not living together. One partner receives UC the other HB.
My question is whether they can both claim housing costs for the child under both schemes by splitting the child benefits i.e the HB claimant claiming the Child Benefit and the UC claimant claiming the Child element under UC.
Has anyone had any success in this?
Thanks
you cant split child benefit. It can only be paid to one person per child. The main carer should get it - if the parnts have shared custody and the child spend half their time with each, then the acid test is who gets the child benefit for them - that person gets the child included in their claim
A child shouldnt be included in mor ethan 1 persons claim at any one time - and is likely to lead to quite hefty overpayments if its done and later put right
HB would expect to see Cben payments for the HB customer and query why it wasnt being received - same with UC.
generally where the child lives isnt in dispute, but in cases where the custody is split down the middle, then the deciding factor is who gets cben
The parent without the child included could request a DHP for the shortfall between the 1 bed rate and 2 bed rate but thats not guaranteed as DHP not a long term solution to a rent shortfall