Confused - Are we a couple

blue_monkey_2

So you already know she is entitled to Tax Credits as a single so what's the point in posting here? To get the extra £10 a week you might be missing out on by being a couple?

If she goes to the Job Centre (or whatever it is) to claim benefits they will ask her what other income she has and she will have to declare the £3k per month so she will not get anything from them. Likewise with Council Tax benefits. She will have to declare if she has any savings too. She will have to give in her bank statements too.

Mind you, you sound like the kind of chap who will ensure that things are well hidden anyway. Have you not thought of asking your accountant?

The whole thing just makes me squirm and I actually feel desperately sorry for you, and yes I will be well aware that you don't feel anything but a desperate need to get what you are owed, but you must be desperately lacking something that makes you that THAT needy, greedy and money grabbing to have enough income for both you to live on and to give her 3k a month and yet you are still trying to squeeze another £100 a week or so out of the benefits agency 'because they owe you'.

kb92830

Blue,

Under their rules what I pay her is counted as maintenance and is therefore excluded as income. Again I didnt write the rules

I dont have an accountant, I am not trying to hide anything.

The last quote in my previous post states MUST, therefore the claim is mandatory, not voluntary.

Why is it that everybody thinks you are trying to cheat the system, all I wanted was clarification.

missbunbury

kb92830 wrote: »

I have paid in to the system for a great number of years, why should I have subsidised everyone else for all that time? As I said previously this is not moral just a factual question, if I pay in and then become eligible for a payment why wouldn't I take it.

Because you don't need it, and as I have pointed out, if everyone took the same approach as you there would be no help available for those who do need it.

kb92830 wrote: »

If you won the lottery would you give it back because you didn't need it, would you give it to the inland revenue as a charitable gift to support all of those non taxpaying individuals- I guess not.

No, I wouldn't give it back, or give it the Inland Revenue, obviously. If, however, it then turned out that there was a weird benefits loophole that meant my winnings were not classed as income and I was eligible for benefits I did not need as a result, I wouldn't go ahead and claim those benefits just because I was entitled.

kb92830 wrote: »

To be honest I would prefer if the welfare state were to be disolved, its currently supported by too few individuals who end up supporting a large number of people, the welfare state was devised to be contributed to by the majority and to provide benefits for all , it wasn't there for people like me to pay a fortune in tax and national insurance to subsidise others in the country.

So, how is adding your partner to that list of subsidised people going to help solve the problem as you see it? I will now be subsidising your partner with my tax money. If she needed the help, then fine, no problem, but you have already made clear that she has plenty of money coming in. I'm not arguing as to your right to make the claim, I am suggesting that you don't HAVE to do so - I would imagine an expert would be able to clarify this for me, but there must be provision within the system for people to opt out on the grounds of having a private income. No-one is going to force your partner to claim anything.

Just because there's a loophole doesn't mean you have to exploit it. I think part of the reason why the benefits system is abused by so many (and if you carry on with your plan you will be abusing it morally) is that people don't consider their individual responsibility towards society enough. The mentality of "if everyone else is getting away with it, why shouldn't I?" is pervasive and damaging and it saddens me to see somebody who is clearly well-educated and capable of earning a good living succumbing to this way of thinking. I will ask again, what if everybody did it?

nannytone_2

wjhen they brought in the rule that maintenance wouldnt be counted as income.......................didnt you just know it was ripe for abuse?

hunnie

Hi kb,
Sorry to see you have had so many frustrating and quite frankly insulting replies.
I don't know the answer to your question but I can see that the situation you find yourself in is not deliberate.

There is no reason why anyone should think you are trying to milk the system or cheat in any way.
I think those who are accusing you of this must be just trying to wind you up for their own amusement!
Either that or they haven't bothered to read your posts properly.

Good luck with your endeavours to make a living and of course your partner should be at home with the two very young children, especially as she is on her own with them mostly.

regards
hunnie

Deepmistrust

"But if the claimant stays abroad for longer than the permitted 8 or 12 weeks, their award comes to an end because they are no longer 'in the UK'. If the claim is a joint one, the partner who remains in the UK must make a single claim once the 8 or 12 week permitted period has expired."

Seems clear to me. She HAS to make a single claim.

Why on earth do people think that she should not only forfeit her 'couple' claim (albeit a much smaller claim that a single claim would be), but not also claim benefits she is legally entitled to claim?

gorgeousgeorge

nannytone wrote: »

wjhen they brought in the rule that maintenance wouldnt be counted as income.......................didnt you just know it was ripe for abuse?

Does that mean that you can claim ALL benefits as in H/B C/T etc and still have child maintenance paid on top??? Surely not???.......

nannytone_2

gorgeousgeorge wrote: »

Does that mean that you can claim ALL benefits as in H/B C/T etc and still have child maintenance paid on top??? Surely not???.......

from 14th april, maintenance is NOT classed as income for means tested benefit. crap innit lol

Golden_Anemone

kb92830

The way I would approach this if I was still a DM is that your ex-partner would be receiving a monthly payment from you - part of which is child maintenance but part of which is income paid to her in her own right. The maintenance would fall to be disregarded but the element which is income for her would not.

In my view it would be a regular voluntary payment which is liable to be taken fully into account without any disregard under the terms of DMG para 28510 et seq.

Given the quantum of the monthly payment is £3k I would assume half of that as the voluntary payment and take into account as income - £18k per annum. This would rule out entitlement to Income Support though possibly not Child Tax Credit.

G51shopaholic

if your back 3 or 4 nights per month, does this not cancel the 12 week rule as your back in the country?
Or is the fact that you've given up residency the problem?

3k a month is more income than most two parent working families never mind a single woman with 2 kids.

Apply for it if you want or write to your local MP pointing out the loop-hole instead of taking advantage of it.