Help For Keep

[fruitsalad]

My Son and his partner split up some years ago, our Grandaughter lives with us as her school is just under a mile from us, it's 8/9 miles from her Mother's house and 12 miles from her Dads, so she chooses to live with us 95% of the time, the arrangement was she goes to each other parent, every other weekend and some of the school holidays, except now she doesn't want to, her friends are local and it's not a great home life at her Mums, her Dad takes her on holidays and out some weekends, if she decides she wants to go, that is, she's 13, Mr Fruit and myself are on state pension she eats like it's going out of fashion, there's washing, electricity for baths etc etc how much should her parents be helping out financially 

[Prudie]

Barry you need to read what I said too, your response was simply that most people do it for love. Let's leave it there.

I would like clarification from you however. I'm using a tablet which isn't the best for interrogating Google but I have continued to ask various questions about child benefit and they all comeback with reference to HMRC, even to use their app to see if you're eligible. So which is it? HMRC or DWP?

 

[DDIL]

Good Morning, you will need to contact HMRC to claim the child benefit and in doing so it will also entitle you to tax credits (or its replacement).

The Mother claiming an allowance she is not entitled to and its not fair on you that you are raising her child.

[DDIL]

Good Morning Prudie this is taken from the governments child benefit page.

Deciding who should claim

Only one person can get Child Benefit for a child, so you need to decide whether it’s better for you or the other parent to claim. The person who claims will get National Insurance credits towards their state pension if they’re not working.

Make a claim online

Use this service to make a claim for Child Benefit or to add another child to an existing claim.

You might need to download, print and send your completed form to HMRC, along with any documents you need to provide.

[Prudie]

Thank you DDIL. As Barry corrected me after I'd checked first and said it was DWP I wanted to know the right answer :-)

[fruitsalad]

Yes I'm not sure, but then if I don't they may go after him for some sort of payment anyway.

[Vagus]

Do her parents, both of them, know that you're struggling financially looking after her? Have you had a recent conversation with both of them about it, and told them exactly your situation?

Personally, before I'd go down any official route, I'd have a very open conversation with them and see if you can all come to some fair resolution. I feel it's always better to be open and honest about things like this with family. 
If you don't tell them, then they both probably assume you're happy with the way things are.