My ex and I separated 6 years ago, we have 3 kids and I’ve been the only caregiver for the past 6 years. My ex has been bouncing between jobs and accomodation since the break up and late last year he lost his job and hasn’t been able to find one since. Soon after he was kicked out of his mother’s house due to an explosive argument and has spent a few weeks couch surfing. He asked if he could park his van on my property to sleep in for a while until he got back on his feet. That was 5 months ago. Then he went and gave his job network my address as his address and Centrelink has sent out some forms to clarify that we’re “separated under the same roof.”
We are 110% separated. I have NO desire to be with him at all. I only agreed to let him stay on the property because he’s the father of my children and homeless and he wasn’t able to keep up a regular relationship with the kids, so it seemed “right.”
My question is, how likely is Centrelink to reject our forms? I’m a student with occasional work, a house to manage and 3 kids to care for, I can’t afford to lose a cent. My ex needs to go, I know that, but he still doesn’t have a job and he’s in a fragile mental state at the moment, so if I kick him out, he will literally have no one and I’ll possibly have a suicide on my conscience.
Has anyone had their claim approved? I’ve submitted the forms and told the truth. One part asks if we share meals and we do on special occasions (Xmas/birthdays etc) and once a fortnight, a take away night, but he pays for his own. And another asks if we go on social outings together as a family and I answered yes, as we usually try to do one thing every weekend (which we did when separated and he was in a share house/couch surfing because he wasn’t able to have them over).
Sorry, it’s a long read. I tend to babble when stressed!
6 Replies
From what I understand is that 'separated under the one roof' claim is very difficult to obtain because if it was easy every Tom, Sick and Harry would claim to be separated for a bit of extra cash. It makes it hard for the honest people though, my MIL tried to apply when she was in a DV relationship. Her partner at the time had moved into the granny flat on the property, he worked and earned a good income and absolutely refused to pay bills, buy things the kids needed or contribute in any way financially. He expected her to look after 4 kids on her little amount of benefits. Long story short, she was refused these payments.
I'm sorry that's not really a positive note to go on.
I'm sorry. But I don't think it will get approved based on what you've wrote. I do know someone who got rejected recently for a similar situation.
I think the fact that you have been separated for six years and he is living in a caravan, rather than inside the home are pretty strong arguments for you to be accepted. Good luck xxxx
I think ifyoure really separated then you know you'll be able to prove it if pushed.
I also think if he's such a dropkick and you're on your own taking care of the kids and he brings this much stress to you then if it gets rejected then he needs to go, mental state or not, your kids need and deserve a life not affected by him. Said by someone with exactly the same ex.
I did it. My ex and I lived under the same roof for almost a year, I started claiming parenting payments about 6 months before I moved out when he refused to give me money for tampons (I had 2 kids under 2 at the time and had to ask him for money). As long as you have 2 people willing to confirm that you are separated then you’ll be fine. They can do checks etc to make sure you’re telling the truth.
When my sons father and I separated 5.5 years ago, for the first 3 months we continued to live together as we where living rural and I needed time to work notice in my job, arrange moving back to the city etc.
We were sleeping in seperate rooms (but had also been doing this for several months prior to seperating), we occasionally did something as a family for our child’s sake, and would have a meal together once a week again for our child to see we could get along and that we both still loved him.
Centrelink checked with the people we put on the paperwork who could confirm we had seperated