Benefits and maintenance??

SuziQ

glitterstar wrote: »

How is it benefit fraud for taking maintenance cash in hand? The lone parent advisor at the job center advised me to do this and sort out maintenance myself with my ex if it was possible instead of going through the hassle of CSA, surely someone at the job center would not advise someone to do this if it meant that they would be committing benefit fraud???

You can take maintenance in cash but must declare it if in receipt of benefit-it is classed as INCOME when deciding what benefits you may be entitled to.You are allowed to keep a certain amount,the rest is deducted from certain benefits-the amount you are allowed to keep doubles from£10 to £20 in October.

I am still confused over this Child benefit/Income support issue.


I recieve income support of £60.50 a week,plus I get child benefit for my 3 children (2 from next month.)
So where exactly is this deducted? Income support know I recieve CB and have never said it is deducted.

kelloggs36

Susie - maybe things have changed in the past 5 years. When I worked for benefit fraud, all payments were made via income support (except child benefit) so the amount for the parent and the children was calculated and then child benefit deducted and what was left was what was paid. Now child payments are made via tax credits, so it may have changed so that you now keep it.

Kimitatsu

Hiya SuziQ

The quick answer is that everyone gets child benefit, but if you are on income support it is taken into account as part of your income. So as IS is a means tested benefit, your CB is classed as income and your IS is assessed as you having that income coming into your household. To be honest it is pretty irrelevant as IS does not allow you to live the high life, but it would be the same for any other means tested benefit too. So for Housing Benefit, CB is classed as an income into the household that can be used towards your housing costs.

So no they will not take your CB away from you, but it is classed as income for any means tested benefit (IS, JSA, tax credits, HB etc)

Hope this clarifies things a little

SuziQ

I wasn't concerned except Womble8 has been so emphatic about it-I presumed that as the jobcentre advicsed me to take IS rather the jobseekers due to me having young children that they are then obviously aware that I recieve child benefit-yet the rate for JS and IS seems to be the same amount? I'm sure womble understand what he/she means but I would imagine that the ctc are tapered to take into account the total income including CB rather than mrs a 1 child getting one amount of IS and Mrs b no child getting a different IS?

Loopy_Girl

kelloggs36 wrote: »

Susie - maybe things have changed in the past 5 years. When I worked for benefit fraud, all payments were made via income support (except child benefit) so the amount for the parent and the children was calculated and then child benefit deducted and what was left was what was paid. Now child payments are made via tax credits, so it may have changed so that you now keep it.

Agreed. I came off IS in January 2007 and it used to work like that. I used to get a sheet with calculations telling me how much I was needed to support me and small person and then there was a deduction of *whatever the CB rate was* as this was classed as income and I was awarded the balance.

I'm not sure how the new system works. I know the IS rates for the adults are the same. Maybes the CTC has a deduction to allow for CB? I don't suppose it will be as clear cut as the CTC paperwork wouldn't show it like the IS stuff used to. I doubt very much though that single parents would be allowed to be almost £20.00 better off a week - there would be an uproar from the benefit basher brigade!!!:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Loopy_Girl

SuziQ wrote: »

I wasn't concerned except Womble8 has been so emphatic about it-I presumed that as the jobcentre advicsed me to take IS rather the jobseekers due to me having young children that they are then obviously aware that I recieve child benefit-yet the rate for JS and IS seems to be the same amount? I'm sure womble understand what he/she means but I would imagine that the ctc are tapered to take into account the total income including CB rather than mrs a 1 child getting one amount of IS and Mrs b no child getting a different IS?

Suzi don't worry. I know you are thinking you have done something wrong here but you haven't. You have been to see an advisor and they have told you what you are entitled to. You have probably been told to get IS so there is no pressure to be 'job seeking'. Also you have your disabled little one so that puts a different slant on things. You are claiming exactly what you should be and no one is going to come and query with you. The IS rate is for adults only. The CTC rates are dependant on number of children, disabilites etc so the HMRC will know how many children CB is being claimed for. Whether they take that into consideration and a 'deduction' is made seems to be the million dollar question!! Nonetheless you have done everything correctly x

Womble8

Yeh sorry , didn't mean to worry anyone! It is exactly like Loopygirl (hope i got that right!) says, with the Child Benefit automatically calculated into your Income Support payments so you've no need to worry about breaking the rules. You would already have told them about this when you filled out your form for Income Support.

All I was trying to say is that Child Benefit was supposedly created to improve the lives of children in the UK but to some of the poorest parents in the country, it is given with one hand and then taken away with the other. Is there any difference between doing that and not paying it to those on Income Support at all?

kelloggs36

Loopy_Girl wrote: »

Agreed. I came off IS in January 2007 and it used to work like that. I used to get a sheet with calculations telling me how much I was needed to support me and small person and then there was a deduction of *whatever the CB rate was* as this was classed as income and I was awarded the balance.

I'm not sure how the new system works. I know the IS rates for the adults are the same. Maybes the CTC has a deduction to allow for CB? I don't suppose it will be as clear cut as the CTC paperwork wouldn't show it like the IS stuff used to. I doubt very much though that single parents would be allowed to be almost £20.00 better off a week - there would be an uproar from the benefit basher brigade!!!:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

However, there seems to be a push to make the single parents on benefits better off than those working by allowing them to keep all of their child support payments in addition to all their benefits. Those with multiple NRPs will be raking it in.

3onitsway

kelloggs36 wrote: »

However, there seems to be a push to make the single parents on benefits better off than those working by allowing them to keep all of their child support payments in addition to all their benefits. Those with multiple NRPs will be raking it in.

Even more so when it goes up to them being allowed to keep the first £40 a week - if you've got three kids to three NRP's with good jobs, you could be getting £120 a week on top of your benefits!!

It'd make more sense to have multiple kids to multiple dads - thats a bit wrong!

kelloggs36

Quite! Perhaps I should start sleeping around then!!