child benefit not to be paid - 8 months to decide which has created overpayment of IS HB CTB & CTC

my client had CB in her name, her x then made a malicious claim last july despite having made an agreement with their solicitors that she should keep the CB claim and care being split 50/50.
HMRC investigated the dispute and asked for supporting evidence - where the child was registered for school and for Dr. my client sent all of this and a copy of the court forms in as it all supported her claim. hmrc seams to have lost this evidence and it was sent in again.
my client phoned and phoned but could get no information, she asked me to contact them which i did and in January they finally said a decision had been made and CB would be paid back to her….................still no sign of it , then in march they said a letter was sent to her saying that cb would be sent to the x partner. she says she has had no letter?
during all of this time she has had an IS claim in as well as HB & CTB - also CTC has never being stoped and is still in payment to her and she pays 1/2 over to her x - but with no CB in payment since last july…..........this has created an enormous overpayment of all 4
has anyone else come across anything similar and what did they do about it?

I have dealt with something broadly similar…

I would inform all the relevant agencies (by phone and post) of the circumstances surrounding the overpayment and send them copies of all correpondence and a timeline of events to show what has happened. Ask them to withold any action on the overpayment until the issue is clarified with Child Benefits and offer to keep them updated on all progress on a month by month basis until a satisfactory decision is reached.

Ask Child Benefits for the reasons for their decision and what they need to change it then go from there. it might be worthwhile to raise it to someone senior at the CB office given the conflicting messages you have received, the length of time it has taken and the issues it has caused with other benefits.

I am not too hot on any legislation you can cite but maybe you could say your client has complied with:

The Child Benefit and Guardian’s Allowance (Administration) Regulations 2003
..........................................................................................................................................................
Evidence and information
7.—(1) A person making a claim for child benefit or guardian’s allowance must furnish such certificates, documents, information and evidence in connection with the claim, or any question arising out of it, as may be required by the Board.

(2) A person required under paragraph (1) to furnish certificates, documents, information and evidence must do so—

(a)within one month of being required by the Board to do so; or.
(b)within such longer period as the Board may consider reasonable..
...........................................................................................................................................................
Information to be given and changes to be notified
23.—(1) This regulation applies to any person entitled to child benefit or guardian’s allowance and any person by whom, or on whose behalf, payments of such benefit or allowance are receivable.

(2) A person to whom this regulation applies must furnish in such manner and at such times as the Board may determine such information or evidence as the Board may require for determining whether a decision on an award—

(a)in relation to benefit or allowance under the Contributions and Benefits Act, should be revised under section 9 or superseded under section 10 of the Social Security Act 1998(1);.
(b)in relation to benefit or allowance under the Contributions and Benefits (NI) Act, should be revised under Article 10 or superseded under Article 11 of the Social Security (Northern Ireland) Order 1998(2)..
(3) A person to whom this regulation applies must furnish in such manner and at such times as the Board may determine such information and evidence as the Board may require in connection with the payment of the benefit or allowance.

(4) A person to whom this regulation applies must notify the Board or a relevant authority of any change of circumstances which he might reasonably be expected to know might affect—

(a)the continuance of entitlement to the benefit or allowance; or.
(b)the payment of it,.
as soon as reasonably practicable after the change occurs.

(5) A notification under paragraph (4)—

(a)must be given by notice in writing or orally; and.
(b)must be sent, delivered or given to the appropriate office..

and if not then…

Defective applications
10.—(1) If an appropriate office receives a defective application, the Board or the relevant authority may refer it back to the person making it or supply him with the approved form for completion.

(2) Where—

(a)in accordance with paragraph (1), a defective application has been referred back, or an approved form supplied, to a person; and.
(b)a claim is received by an appropriate office—.
(i)within the period of one month beginning with the date on which the defective application was referred back or the approved form was supplied; or.
(ii)within such longer period as the Board may consider reasonable,.
the claim shall be treated as having been made on the date on which the appropriate office received the defective application.
(3) “Defective application” means an intended claim which—

(a)is made on an approved form which has not been completed in accordance with the instructions on it; or.
(b)is in writing but is not made on the approved form..

Unfortunately I would prepare my client for some serious waiting around before this gets sorted fully.

In my experience it would be very unusual for the Child Benefit to be removed from the person already getting it if there is shared care.

Have you contact the CB line for intermediaries?  When i speak to them they have always been very good and we have always been able to get an answer to our questions.

There is no reason your client cannot get CTC - you do not have to be getting CB to be entitled to this.

the reason hmrc cb gave for moving it from her to him was he had the child for 8 of the previons 14 days and ignored the fact that this was unusual also ignoring the dr and school registration being with her - she had sent them all this information when asked