child benefit/housing benefit help please

johnnysmum74

Hi I am new here and in desperate need of some information. I have tried looking online but cant find what im looking for.

I am a single parent working 21 hours a week and have 3 children aged 17 14 and 5.

My eldest started college in september and my hours of work changed from 16 to 21 around about the same time. NOTE 2 change of circumstances. My child tax credits didnt change by much and my working tax stayed the same. Everyone who needed to be informed of the changes was informed.

Its taken me until today to find out my housing benefit award and its not good. I used to receive about £40 a week housing benefit, today i am told that i will receive only £8.48 a week h/b and as there has been an overpayment of £395 they will be taking 7.98 of that to go towards
the overpayment. While i was waiting for all this to be sorted out i managed to end up owing £269 in rent arrears. I amit i didnt pay at xmas and new year because as far as i was aware those were free weeks.

Turns out if you owe any rent arrears you dont get the free weeks. I had continued paying my rent up until then and hadnt been told to pay anything extra so while they have taken from 13th november to work out my claim they have been charging me full rent, meaning i dont get the free weeks.

Thats not my main question as i will get back to them regarding this when i calm down a bit.
They say because i lost the child benefit for my eldest son i lose premiums or £56 a week or something and this is how i need to pay more rent. It doesnt make sense to me to be honest.

I am getting child benefit for the other 2 children......does this not make a difference?? They say child benefit is no longer counted.....its so confusing.

Anyway, the overall outcome is i now have an overpayment of nearly 400 plus they say i still owe them 269, so for a change in circumstances i owe nearly 700.I dont get it at all.

Anyone any more clued up than me and if not does anyone know who can help me out. I tried entitled to website but i cant seem to work out if my son in college is a dependant or non dependant.

He is doing an HNC in college so he gets a bursary, i think its about £55 a week he gets.

I am demented tonight, when i was talking to the girl on the fone i could feel myself getting upset and i had to tell her i would fone her back. This just isnt making sense to me. If i stay working 21 hours a week , i get £127 a week from work then i need to pay the rent office my 75 plus something to the arrears and then ive also been told i wont get any council tax benefit either.

Please, im hoping this isnt right, i dont want to stop working but i dont see the point of going to work to give it all to them. i cant really do any more work as i also help my mum who is disabled and in remission from throat cancer.

Ps I dont claim anything for helping my mum.

Thanks in advance and sorry this is so long.

Cassi.

Vixie_Pixie

I'm afraid you do lose £56.11 per week for your son now being at college. If you are not getting child benefit for him he is classed as a non dependant. However he is 17 and you could possibly still get child benefit for him. What course does he do? If its a non advanced course i.e not a degree i would put a claim in for child benefit again for him as you can get it up to age 20.

In terms of your benefit overpayment - if its causing you hardship ask the LA to reduce the recovery rate.

johnnysmum74

Hi
Thanks for the reply, he is doing an HNC in engineering. The child benefit people etc know this so i take it if i was still entitled to it i would get it. Having said that when i told the tax credits they said provided he was in college i would get tax credits for him until he was 20.....Do they work the same way?

The h/b people did say i lose £56 something but once i came off the fone i thought maybe they had got it wrong and hadnt included the child benefit i still get for the other 2.

It really isnt going to be worth my while working as i already have council tax arrears and pay £100 a month towards that.

Edited to add, I just checked on child benefit website, an HNC is classed as an advanced course so i wont get the child benefit for him. Thanks for info. x
What a day this has been :mad:
Thank you once again.

Caz3121

If it is classed as an advanced course he should no longer be on your tax credits claim either

Oldernotwiser

HNC is classed as higher education so CB and CTC for him should stop. However he should receive a student loan as well as a bursary which would enable him to pay his way at home and counteract the loss of benefits.

johnnysmum74

I told the tax credits and they stopped the money for about a week or so then they gave me it back.............Thats great, another overpayment. I will fone them tomorrow after work and see what they say. This is driving me nuts. They sent me the award letter saying it was right and with my sons details on it. I asked them if they were sure as it was an HNC and they said yes.

Thanks again folks, i will update tomorrow night. gonna go to bed as im up at half 6 although i doubt i will fall asleep anytime soon.

Oldernotwiser

17 is very young to be doing an HNC, are you sure it's not a national certificate he's doing?

Indie_Kid

They could be in Scotland? Don't they start HE at 17?

Oldernotwiser

Why don't people give essential information?

seven-day-weekend

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Why don't people give essential information?

Because they don't realise it is essential.

Loopy_Girl

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Why don't people give essential information?

What essential info? She has given you all the info that was needed for the query surely? The fact that she may live in Scotland is irrelevent. If she says her 17 year old son is doing an HNC then why would it not be believed....sorry, I just don't understand.

And yes, in Scotland we can start our FE from age of 16 (although norm is 17). Standard Grades are sat at age 16 (though I sat mines at 15 - all depends on your birthday and when you started P1) and Highers are sat the year after. It's not unusual for a 17 year old to be at college or Uni