OR and Child Benefit

marmalady · 26 October 2009 at 8:36PM

I was really surprised when I had my interview on the view the OR took on child benefit. They told me the benefit was for the child and allowed several extra curricular activities to be included on the SOA instead of the usual one. This meant the entire CB was accounted for. Im not sure if i had a particularly sympathetic OR but it was a pleasant surprise! They even pointed out several other things I should allow for on the SOA they went out of there way to help me so just thought I would post a positive experience.

fatou256 · 26 October 2009 at 9:38PM

hi marmalady no the OR was just being an OR lol they now take into account child benefit into their IPA calculation so you have done well by accounting all the expenses for your child. if you are willing you could alwasy post your SOA so peopel can comment on it and also to make sure you account for everything. Good luck

Tinytim · 26 October 2009 at 10:35PM

Hi Marmalady,

It is nice to hear a positive experience, which despite the worries many people have, tends to be the norm.

It is worth reminding ourselves what the function of the OR and his examiners are, as it is very easy to persaude ourselves that they are judge, jury and executioner. The OR is a civil servant whose job is primarily to realise as much as possible from our estates to pay to our creditors, whilst at the same time ensuring we have enough left to provide a sustainable standard of living without having to resort to borrowing.

Therefore, if the examiner was aware of costs which you would invariably incur, but which you hadn't allowed for, he would be doing no more than fullfilling his function of ensuring a sustainable standard of living by suggesting you include them.

Likewise, if there is something which is not generally considered essential, such as Sky TV, he may well exclude it.

I have to say that my own experience of the OR is that in the vast majority of cases they are professional pragmatists who try to meet their objectives in the most commonsense way possible.