Dad seeking childrens allowance

LegacyUser

Quick query folks.
My daughter is now living with me on a full time basis. Her mother wasn't crazy about the idea but has come around since, mainly as my child is 17 (old enough to choose) and also wasn't having the best time of it at home (another story for another day).
Anyway I have since looked into children's allowance/benefit. I am not going to be given anything by her mother so I am depending on this extra income. I asked her mam to sign it over to me. That did not go down well at all and I now see it was actually up to her to contact welfare when our daughter moved out. Now she is refusing to sign any forms etc. Do I need her to sign anything or is it enough for me to go in myself. Daughter has agreed to come too if needs be?

nicowa

I don't know much about it. But if you're happy to go in, and the daughter is happy to go in - despite the sh!t storm she could bring down on her mum - go ahead. They'll have to at least look at it.

January

I don't think you can go into a Social Welfare office regarding child benefit, you can ring them though, they're in Letterkenny.

Department of Social Protection
Social Welfare Services Office
St Oliver Plunkett Road
Letterkenny
Donegal
Ireland
Opening Hours:You can only contact this office by email or telephone.
Tel:(074) 916 4400
Locall:1890 400 400

Ring them and explain she's unwilling to hand it over voluntarily and ask what can you do?

neddser1961

i made a similar enquirer...A father is only entitled to childrens allowance if he has his children for 51% of the time. I have mine 50% of the time and I can prove that..actually have them more when you take into account bringing to them to training and matches etc but that cant be proved. So you will get the allowance..Crazy in this day and age of equality that the dept dont recognise the 50 /50 situation ...and to top it all i pay maintenance and all of the children s expenses as well ..

m'lady

nicowa wrote: »

I don't know much about it. But if you're happy to go in, and the daughter is happy to go in - despite the sh!t storm she could bring down on her mum - go ahead. They'll have to at least look at it.[/quote

I think her mum is bringing on the sh!t storm all by herself!

Op you have your daughter full time, and not receiving maintenance- of course you will be entitled to it. Just call and explain the situation.

MonicaBing

As M'lady said, your daughter is living with you full time and therefore you are entitled to that allowance. Had a similar situation myself, son wanted to live with his dad for a while, so phoned Letterkenny, had to write a letter stating why/where etc and get a letter from son's school to state they know where he is living full time, then his dad received the allowance instead of me...fairly painless procedure, so if u can get a letter from your daughter's school and then write your own letter you should be cool.

The allowance was automatically taken from and given to dad, she is not entitled to receive that money once your daughter stops living with her.

fenris

There is an 18 page form to fill in, I am in the process of sorting it out following my wife's death, you need quite a lot of documentation including letters from every school the kids attended, birth cert copies with Garda stamp, letter from employer re work status and how long you worked there, details of any pensions or incomes that you have etc.

It is a bit mad to see the hoops that you have to go through for the kids to get what they were entitled to the week before. I have been almost getting it sorted for nearly a year and hopefully will have it sorted soon. You really do end up feeling that being a male single parent is some sort of crime.