Recommendation 21

HM Government Rejected

The government appreciates the importance of ensuring an appropriate amount of support is provided to families in cases of shared care. However, the Government does not agree that splitting Child Benefit payments would be appropriate to provide support to parents in these cases. The government has a range of measures in place to ensure that parents in cases of shared care are provided an appropriate level of support for the care of the child. For example, if the CMS is satisfied that both parents have equal day-to-day care for the child, in addition to sharing overnight care, there is no requirement for either parent to pay child maintenance. Child Benefit can only be claimed by one individual who is responsible for caring for a child. When two people are responsible for the same child, and both claim Child Benefit, only one of them can be entitled to Child Benefit in respect of that child. HMRC encourages parents or guardians to jointly elect which person should be awarded Child Benefit. If they cannot agree, HMRC will decide which of them is entitled. The system places Child Benefit in the hands of one parent/guardian and gives that person responsibility for allocating it between capital and day to day costs. It is important, especially for parents and families on lower incomes, that enough support is directed to them to prevent child poverty. Therefore, payment of support to the person with priority of entitlement for a child is the most appropriate way to deal with the majority of families with children. Splitting Child Benefit between parents with shared care arrangements would also introduce additional operational burdens into the Child Benefit system. This is likely to result in complexity for claimants, and costs for the Exchequer. Splitting payments between parents would also be especially complex to implement, as shared care arrangements often vary over time.