Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of benefit allocation rules on children in shared care arrangements.

Universal Credit child element is payable to the person who is responsible for a child or young person. Where a child or qualifying young person normally lives with two or more persons who are not a couple, only one of them is to be treated as responsible and that is the person who has the main responsibility. This is in line with the approach generally adopted across the benefit system, including Child Benefit. There are no plans to review this policy at this time.