Kevin Foster – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Foster on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether there is provision to ensure that both parents in a separated couple receive financial assistance for their children when joint custody has been approved.

Damian Hinds

Where a separated couple have joint custody for their children, only one of them will receive financial assistance for those children through Universal Credit. The separated couple may jointly nominate which of them that will be. The parent who receives financial support is the one whom the child normally lives with, but if the child normally lives with both, then it is the parent who has main responsibility for the child. This is to be decided by the parents, or failing that, the Secretary of State if the parents cannot agree or if the Secretary of State does not think that the nomination accurately reflects the arrangement. HM Revenue & Customs administer Child Tax Credit and Child Benefit and the rules similarly require that payment is directed towards the person who is mainly responsible for the child, so that at any one time, only one person can be entitled to receive payments in respect of a particular child.