HMRC are not immigration experts and they will not know.
Agreed HMRC are not immigration experts. However, there are rules about who can make a claim to CB and who cannot (based on their immigration status). People at the ChBO will be able to see if an ILR holder can claim for a non-EU dependent. I did also advise this route with CAUTION. It is also very possible to register a child for CB and NOT take the PAYMENT from ChBO (as I previously stated). It doesn't matter the reason for not taking the money. And an ILR holder is definitely allowed to claim, it's the question of whether the claimant can claim for a non-EU child subject to immigration rules. There is guidance - they will be able to check it. It would be wise to take this route with caution (as I previously alluded to!).
There have been lots of posts where a visa has been refused because they took Child Benefit, or they had to quickly repay all the benefit money when they realised they should not have taken this benefit to get another visa. Usually this is because they were told about Child Benefit at the hospital after the birth and thought they couild claim this benefit too, even though it is a Public Fund.
This is pretty irrelevant in this case, no?
Child Benefit is remaining with HMRC because it is easy for them to check the earnings of a parent as this benefit has an earning cap. They can also check if the parent has completed an SA form, even if they are PAYE; issue fines if they had not; check their RTI system. They do run sweeps for the DWP and UKVI.
No, no. Just no. This is all wrong on so many levels. First of all, the ChBO is a seperate office to the tax office. ChBO have NO access to your income/ earnings details because CB is not means tested. (I don't think you know what I do for a living?). They cannot access PAYE, SA, TBS, NIRS, or any of the other myriad systems that the tax office use (RTI is within PAYE). And actually, the tax office have VERY limited access to CB info.
HMRC don't regularly open enquiries into this sort of thing (and yes - they would have to open an actual enquiry for this sort of thing). An HMRC employee cannot simply check anyone's records on a whim. There would be ZERO reason or authorisation to look into any old CB claimant's SATR. The only cross-over between ChBO and the tax office is the high income child benefit charge, and a tax office employee can only look into a record if they recieve information that there could be non-compliance.
To think ChBO have access to SA is just stupid. Data Protection (and the range of associated laws with protecting it) says that only people who need access to your data to perform their job can have the access. No one at ChBO needs to check your income as it is NOT means tested!!!!
And yes, I agree that using school records/ letters is a far more straightforward way of proving that your husband lives with a second child.