Separating From Husband - Will I get Tax Credits?

MoneySavingMumof2

I am in the middle of separating from my husband and moving into my own house with our children.

At the minute we are not receving tax credits as we had an overpayment of roughly £5k, which is why they have stopped our payments until the overpayment has been paid.

As we are separating, will I be entitled to make a new claim for tax credits as a single parent?

What will happen to the money we owe? Will we have to pay it back straight away, or will they take it off my new payments?

Thanks for your help.

Conor_3

If you've got the kids, you claim child tax credits. Not sure but I think they don't deduct money from the CTC portion of it.

SuziQ

I was also told when I split from my husband in April that the debt is split between us so that what portion you both pay back is equal-whatever amount is left is half your debt and half his,so at least your bit is lessened. If this is your only income they should agree a manageable amount for you to repay.

mcnolegs

Firstly, you are eligible to claim tax credits now as a single person if you no longer class yourself as part of a joint household - you don't need to wait until a legal decision comes through. You need to call the tax credit helpline and advise them of the date you no longer consider yourself to be classed as part of a couple. Be aware though that once you give this date any payments you have received after this will be treated as an overpayment; even if you haven't been receiving any payments the money due to you will have been reducing any previous overpayment. They will be able to backdate your new claim as a single parent for 3 months only from when you reapply.

When it comes to your new claim, if there is an overpayment on your old joint claim, tax credits are not legally able to recover anything from this claim against your new single person claim - they are both treated as separate accounts; you will get the full amount due to you. But, this does mean you will need to come to some arrangement to pay back any joint overpayment. If you call them they should be able to sort this out by seeing what you can afford to pay back. Both people on a joint claim are classed as equally responsible for any overpayment but I'm not sure how they look at getting this back - it may be worth checking with their helpline