advice regarding grandson

samm46

Hi there firstly hello to all

Im in need of advice regarding my grandson. my daughter is now a struggling single mom to 3 children including a newborn and her eldest who is 10 is now living with me.

i currently live in a council house claim pip and have universal credit. (old esa) i currently pay bedroom tax.

my daughter is telling me to claim for child so would i be able to do this and how is best way to go about it. as i dont want it to have an affect on the benefits i currently recieve. but shes giving me no money as shes got the 2 child benefit cap so needs it all to now look after the 2 children she has 🙈

OverlyAnxious

Hi,

You can claim the Child Element for your grandchild as long as they normally live with you and you are their primary carer. This can be proven via receipts for items such as food or clothing for the child.

If you currently have one spare bedroom, then that would be allocated to the child, so you would no longer pay bedroom tax.

Your PIP will not be affected.

You can start this process by 'making a change' on the online system for Universal Credit.

If you do claim for this child yourself, your daughter must then remove them from her own UC claim.

Kimi87

If you get any Transitional Protection on your UC claim, this will reduce by the amount of Child Element + increase in Housing Element.

samm46

So is it wise to jjust claim the child benefit and add hin as living here and claim the room tax.

I dont want to make such huge changes to my money just incase he changes his mind and wants to go home at a later date.