Shared care

How it works

If you and your ex-partner have shared care of your children and:

• only you are on a benefit, we can include the child on your benefit if they are a dependent child
• you're both on a benefit, we can only include the child on one of your benefits.

Both you and your ex-partner on a benefit

If you and your ex-partner both have the child at least 40% of the time, whoever has greater responsibility of the child will have them included on their benefit, eg, we would look at who:

• decides about the child's daily activities
• takes them to and from school and supervises leisure activities
• makes decisions about their education and health
• pays for which expenses.