Child Benefit

[flumps1976]

That is the case sorry, the other parent can continue to have the entitlement to receive the child benefit and all associated benefits for a period of 56 days unless they relinquish it voluntarily earlier than that. Your friend could approach the mother and ask her to make a contribution towards his living costs during that period but she is under no legal obligation to do that.

There is very little that the other organisations such as the local authority can do until the relevant benefits are paid.

I used to be a processing officer for DWP Income Support and would have claims waiting for the full 8 weeks before I could make a decision and have the parent on the phone either desperate and not knowing what to do or where to turn or the extreme of shouting that it was me personally holding everything up. I would have thought that nearly 20 years later things would have improved but sadly not.

 

https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit-child-lives-with-someone-else your friend you try to show the mother this link that does state she may wish to consider making a contribution for their sons upkeep but again not legally binding.

Tax Credits are not usually paid without the child benefit being paid but there are exceptions to this, it may be worth getting in contact with CAB or even local MP.

[flumps1976]

The only way to speed things up is to get the mother to write a letter relinquishing her claim for child benefit and tax credits for the child, but she is under no obligation to do this and from what you posted is highly unlikely to do that.

As for the 56 days I have no idea where that figure came from sorry and not going to add my personal opinions as they won't change the outcome.

 

Hope things are sorted soon

[flumps1976]

Hi I certainly didn't take anything personally

The 56 days is there and as I stated previously unless the mother voluntarily relinquishes the relevant benefits then the decison will not change regardless of your friend making a mandatory reconsideration request or appeal.

I was speaking to someone at work today who also used to work in benefit processing and jobcentre and they seem to recall that the 56 days is there as sometimes a child will go and stop with the other parent for the duration of school holidays but still remain resident with the main parent so it was to protect that claim, how true that is I don't know sorry and have been out of the jobcentre for several months now and processing for many years prior to that.