You Need To Know This: Child Benefit And Child Maintenance

Hello good morning good afternoon good evening  my name is Keith and I'm a dad and today I'm   going to talk to you about child benefit and its  impact to do with the child maintenance service   so let's start off and look at qualifying criteria  who can who can receive child benefit well   mum or dad or grandparent can claim child benefits  as well as Foster carers adopted carers and in   some cases if the child lives with a third  party potentially they can claim child benefit   but the key thing is only one person  can claim child benefit at any one time   and traditionally typically in the UK that's often  the mother there's little quirk in child benefit   legislation actually which is currently being  challenged I believe in the court because child   benefit does the legislation actually favours  the mother and my understand is it essentially   says if there are two parents then essentially  it should be paid to the mother which doesn't   seem right nowadays and I'm sure that will work  its way through court and I'm sure that will   have significance to CMS in future now a common  misconception is what I would call the 50k rule   uh several years ago the chancellor George Osborne  bought in the rule that if you earned over 50k   child benefit was had to be paid back and the  way that's done is between 50 and 60k the as   the more you earn up to 60k a proportion  of the child benefit is claimed back by   HMRC so effectively if you earn over 60 000 a  year the child benefit is taken back in full   now what does this mean well I quite often see on  the forums people say I can't claim child benefit   because I earn 60k per year or more that's  not true you can claim child benefit if you   earn over 50k the only thing is you'll have to  pay it all back if it if you actually earn 60k   or parts of it back if you earn between 50 and  60k so there is actually a third option there's   obviously the first option is don't claim it the  second option is to claim it the third option is   to claim it but ask for it not to be Patriot if  it's not paid to you don't have to pay it back   so I hope that clears up a common misconception  you do not have to actually receive the child   benefit in order to be eligible to claim and to  have a valid claim now as we're aware CMS used   child benefit as a measure to determine  who has data who has care of the child   but there's a slight conflict here because CMS is  based on shared care who is the child overnight   their child benefit is calculated on day-to-day  care and this is where a little bit of confusion   comes in I often see people saying I've been asked  you know how do I prove that I have cared my child   do I get school letters doctors letters friends  letters employers letters whatever well yes and no   if you are put in a claim for child benefit  and there's already someone receiving the   money what you actually doing at that point  is putting in what HMRC core a rival claim   and the Rival claim means that someone has to  look at both the evidence from both parties   and determine who receives the Child Benefits  now this is totally separate to CMS this is   HMRC because HMRC run child benefit okay not  the department for work and pensions okay and   this is another confusion when people talk about  child benefit and they say report them from fraud   often people go to the Department of work and  pensions yet the benefit is administered by   HMRC so let's just clarify that from the  outset so what HMRC do you say look up   this rival claim and determine who  has most day-to-day care of the child   Okay so jobs are good possibly you know you've  worked out that someone's day-to-day care of the   child but for CMS purposes is that right  because CMS is based on share care so you   can actually end up with a bizarre situation  where you have a 50 50 or one party has care   of the child during the day seven days a  week and one party is shared care as the   share care in the evening and therefore they  both have equal time maybe 12 hours a day each   but HMRC say someone is entitled to the child  benefit and then CMS say well because they don't   talk to the child benefit they must be the primary  carer so that's a that's a that is an issue   and the problem is what you often find is  where there is a case and I sit regularly   on the forums where someone says we were getting  on great but now she's putting the claim for CMS   but it's 50 50 what do I have to pay well  unfortunately what then happens is clearly   the person claim doesn't agree with 50 50 but  essentially what then happens is there's a bit   of a battle with conflicting rules and eventually  you have to take it to tribunal in order to   get your case heard you'll go to tribunal and  probably tribunal will probably agree it's 50 50.   but we're not really going to talk about that  today uh because I really want to cover the   child benefit stuff so that's the 50k rule now  let's talk about terminal dates four times a year   child benefit stops and that's the last day of  May August November and February now what does   that mean it means unless let's just means that  when your child leaves school at the end of May   okay it's common to think that because they've  left in mid-may child benefit stops at the end   of May well unfortunately it doesn't because the  child is still attending school for education   purposes although they've technically  left school and aren't expected usually   to turn up they're still expected to take  their exams so for child benefit purposes   the child benefit is still paid and it will be  paid until the end of August so the kids get   a nice long summer holiday and in most  cases they go to college by which time   child benefit has been extended  and therefore it is payable now   if a child leaves College starts college  in September but leaves in October   and doesn't intend to go back into  education gets a job for example   come the 30th of November the next terminal date  child benefit will stop at that point the child   continues in college until December then child  and then quits baby quits for Christmas decides   not to go back then the next term the date is end  of February so at the end of February it will shut   child benefit will stop now I've actually had  this in my own case where my child left in April   was clearly not going to go back okay has left  education full stop had got a job and yet I had   to argue with CMS that just because my child left  in April it didn't mean I had to pay CMS until   the following September when the next when the  terminal date was the 31st of August it actually   meant because he left in April and was clearly  working clearly the terminal date at the end of   May was applicable so therefore I didn't have to  pay CMS from that point and eventually I won that   okay that's probably a brief summary of  child benefit and where it works for CMS   as I say just because someone ends earns over  50k it doesn't mean to say they can't claim child   benefit there's also actually fun enough there's  a another little Quirk whereby if that money is   claimed back it's actually claimed back from the  highest earner so you quite often have and I don't   want to be sort of sexiest or stereotypical  here but quite often the highest earner   is the male and quite often when there's  a divorce or separation it's the highest   earner that often leaves the house typically  the mail so you have a bizarre situation where   the uh the other person may have been claiming  child benefit and then bizarrely the other person   doesn't know and then the other party gets tax  bill from HMRC which they're liable to pay never   Quirk of child benefit is it's paid per household  so there have been cases not CMS related but there   have been cases where people have lived in the  house of someone claiming child benefit have been   our higher earner so for example they've been in  a relationship with someone there but you know the   child's not theirs they don't know about the child  benefit being claimed they've split up and then   later on they've subsequently received a bill from  HMRC for the child benefit to be repaid so that's   just something to be aware of it doesn't affect  money but there have been cases of that okay   yeah I'm just thinking what else do I hear so  oh yeah there's another Quirk about who can   claim so if your child has a has a baby and they  claim job benefit in themselves then that means   because they're receiving the child benefit that  for their own child your CMS will stop for their   child that's had the baby however there is a  loophole there where the mother or the father   whoever lives with the child can claim the child  benefit for the grandchild and what that does is   it then means that the mother the father of  the child isn't receiving the child benefit   and therefore you still can get build CMS for  that that child who has said their own child   so it's a bizarre thing so yeah if you if your  own the child you're paying for has a baby and   they claim the child benefit CMS will stop but  if they're other relative claims it or the other   person claims the child benefit then CMS won't  stop so that's just something to be aware of clearly obviously if you are a parent  that claims child benefit you must not   just morally but legally you must report a  child uh change the circumstances to HMRC   okay so if you're no longer entitled to claim  that don't claim it because obviously that could   get you into a lot of trouble in future and it's  not worth it because you can guarantee if you're   claiming child benefit that not that you're not  entitled to at some point that's going to be   claimed back as is any child maintenance that's  been paid to you and whether that's claimed back   by the child maintenance service or for the  courts by the paying parent you can pretty   much guarantee it's probably going to happen  so it's always best not to go down that route   okay I think that's probably quite a useful off  the cuff briefing on how child benefit affects CMS   I just literally produce these videos based on my  knowledge I don't script them I don't even edit   them I just rattle off my thoughts and 90 of the  time hopefully I am right but also if you've got   any more in-depth questions uh by all means ask  them put them in the comments and I will try to   apply to them and in the meantime if I could ask  you to like And subscribe that'd be fantastic uh   the more people that do that the more people get  to see these videos because obviously that's how   the algorithm works and that's probably it  for me so I will stop talking now and I wish   you luck with your CMS journey and hopefully uh  through watching these videos it's not as painful   as it could be if you didn't really watch these  videos have a great day see you later bye-bye

Channel: Child Maintenance UK

Views: 5,002

Keywords: phoning the child maintenance service, child mainenance, child maintenance, child maintenance service, child maintenance service uk, stop the 20 per cent child maintenance service fee, csa, how is child maintenance calculated, Child Benefit And Child Maintenance, how much child maintenance should i pay, child maintenance onlin, child maintenance payments, child support, child support agency, cms, maintenense, child benefit, Child benefit uk, child support 2023, avoid child support

Id: d-xFW7A8IDs

Length: 13min 16sec (796 seconds)

Published: Tue May 30 2023