advice please

i currently have my 2 sons (8 and 10 yrs old)
from wednesday after school till the ex wife picks them up at 6pm saturday .
I have suggested to her that i have them one whole week then her the next and so on !
what i want to know is can i claim anything for them while they are living with me for a whole week ?
i am currently unemployed and recieving ESA
hopefully someone could give me some advice on this ?
also if she doesnt agree to me having them (unless it suits her lol)
what coure of action should i take
solicitors ?
thx ......... Del

It is only possible to claim Child Benefit and Tax Credits for each child once. If you have 2 children and agree to a 50/50 split of care, you could each claim the Child Benefit and Tax Credits for one of the children which would be a fair way of doing it. The person claiming the Child Benefit is eligible to claim child maintenance through the CSA. On a genuine 50/50 you would hope that child maintenance claims could be avoided but if one parent earns considerably more than the other, there is a need to be fair, I think.

If your ex won't agree to the new arrangement, you could suggest mediation. If she refuses mediation, then you're looking at going the court route - it's not a good way of going about things and causes dreadful conflict and problems. These may well be difficult to overcome in the future. As far as the courts are concerned, they will favour the current arrangement providing it can be seen that the children are happy and thriving. At 8 and 10 they are perhaps a little too young to have their wishes entirely acted upon although they would certainly be asked what they want.

thank you for the speedy response
i have asked my boys what they think of the idea because i only thought it was fair to !
there response was wicked idea dad and cool .
thx Del

No it wasn't 'fair' to ask the boys. You have now put them in the middle of a potential dispute and have taken what your ex is likely to see as an agressive action. Don't be surprised if this back fires - be prepared to eat lots of humble pie and work hard at re-establishing an amicable relationship.

Yes I dont agree in involving children in contact arrangments as they normally tell the parent they are with what they want to hear.

Its given them an adult decision and letting them decide how they are parented.
When they are teenagers, their wishes hold a lot more weight but even then I would never put the decision making ON them, would wait until they said something themselves.

Arragments work according to what works best for your own situation.
If a week on week off will be favourable to your children then this could work but it will probably require tweaking and trying a few different ways out before it falls into a good and decent routine.
However, if your ex is not for this arrangment then you will have to prehaps attempt mediation with her, that failing then court is your only option.
If you are having them 3 nights out of 4 that is very close to 50/50. would a viable approach be Tuesday-Fri one week, Thurs-Mon the following, giving each of you a free weekend and a full weekend each with the children but also time in the week to do school runs etc?
That will be 3 out of 7 then 4 out of 7 nights so essentially 5050. You could then look at each claiming CBCTC for one child each.