CBTM04060 - Third parties: Payment to partner as alternative payee

The Child Benefit & Guardian’s Allowance (Administration) Regulations 2003, Regulation 34

Where a member of a couple is entitled to benefit, Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs may arrange for it to be payable not only to the claimant but, in the alternative, to the partner. This does not apply to Guardian’s Allowance where a wife has elected that it is not to be paid to her husband in accordance with regulation 10 of the Guardian’s Allowance (General) Regulations 2003.

A "couple" means

• two people of the opposite sex who are spouses living together or living together as if they are married,
• two people of the same sex who are civil partners in a civil partnership or a cohabiting same sex couple,

who are neither separated under a court order or in circumstances that are likely to be permanent.