PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Child Tax Credit (18 February 2022)

Child Tax Credit (CTC) supports families with the extra costs of raising a child. The Government currently has no plans for splitting CTC in cases where parents have joint care, because there are provisions in place allowing parents to make a joint election as to who should receive the payments. Where parents cannot agree, HM Revenue & Customs can decide who shall be entitled based on the information provided by both parents and the facts in relation to each’s circumstances.

CTC is typically paid to the main carer because they bear more of the expenditure for the child and splitting payments would reduce the amount available to them, when they are often the parent less well placed to earn additional income, and might result in neither household being able to afford extra costs. Unfortunately, there can be no guarantee that both parties will be satisfied with the outcome, although this would equally be the case should parents have to agree how payments were split if formal arrangements for this were put in place. Therefore, ideally, parents should reach agreement between themselves.