Out of step

I've posted previously (see e.g. here) about the increase in shared residence arrangements, whether ordered by the court or agreed between the parents. In this month's Family Law solicitor advocate David Burrows, that tireless champion of the less well off (and highly entertaining speaker) points out how the benefits system has failed to keep up with this development. As he states, the system assumes that only one parent can care for a child and thus receive benefits or tax credits. This is clearly discriminatory against the other parent (usually the father) and, as Ward LJ pointed out in a recent case (quoted by Burrows): "justifiably fuels the passions of protesting fathers".

This obviously needs to be addressed, and preferably, as Burrows suggests, by changing the rules throughout the tax credits and benefits system, rather than by leaving it to parents to 'pick off' each tax credit and benefit, one by one, through the tribunals/courts system.