Does this income sound right?

HRV

I know the rules have recently changed for income support and maintenace but this hasnt changed for child tax credits- has it??

I am so angry!! We cant afford a baby coz we're clearing up ther mess she left. We're in the band the government have just wiped out child tax credits for, my pay has been frozen ( and know doubt soon to be my pension) and if we do manage to have a child we're looking at childcare of £650 + a month- with no change in our income.

Robbie64

HRV wrote: »

I realise theyre not means tested and they don't effect her benefits (tax credits)....


... well may be this new government needs to look carefully at this loop hole. It's jut mad!!

It's not a loophole as the Government deliberately took child maintenance out of the whole means tested benefit system after years of complaints from all sides (parents with care, non resident parents, various organisations etc) that maintenance was reducing income by offsetting maintenance against benefits. That is that the old child support system only benefited the Treasury and not parents with care who got no extra money and the person paying child support who saw the payments as going straight to the Treasury and not to the children.

Personally I think it's an expensive mistake to have done so as it encourages the most ridiculous situations where a parent with care can have maintenance income of any level while still being officially classed for welfare benefits of having no income at all. It's also one policy change that will be hard to reverse even in these times of welfare cut backs.

Robbie64

HRV wrote: »

I know the rules have recently changed for income support and maintenace but this hasnt changed for child tax credits- has it??

From leaflet WTC2 A Guide To Child Tax Credit And Working Tax Credit

Are maintenance payments taken into account when calculating tax credit?

No. We don't take maintenance payments, such as, child support or payments under a divorce settlement into account. You will be able to have full use of any maintenance that you receive in addition to your tax credits.

DX2

maintenance isn't counted when working out housing/council tax benefit either.

Numptytoes

If he only had one child with her how come he is paying £450 a month? That is a lot of money! I have received £120 per month for 16 years from my ex for his daughter.

AsknAnswer2

Maintenence has never been regarded as income for tax credit purposes. It may well not be the woman's income; it could just as easily have been a new job she was looking at and she was calcutating how her income and expenditure could change if she applied. Curiously, what were you doing going through your step daughters bag and subsequently looking through her notebook?

Morgan_Ree

Perhaps you should be worrying more about your own finances, rather than other peoples. Not to mention snooping through your stepdaughters things...

HRV

my step daughter is 5!!!! We were all sat at the dinner table together, her dad got her school bag to check for letters (as her mum never tells us about events/parents evening)- step daughter was looking through note book with dad and showing hime her writing- that's when we saw it!!!- Hardly snooping- just showing an ineterest in her schooling!!!

She has 2 children and she gets £450 coz that's what they agreed- incidentally it's slightly more that CSA calculate we should pay.

I pay very close notice to our finance so we can possibly afford our own child... one day- that's why I'm shocked. If I did 20 hrs a week we wouldn't get a penny extra and no regard is made for what we pay to her??? It just seems to be one rule for one and one for another

missbunbury

If your husband wants to, he can make an application to pay maintenance through the CSA, and let them calculate the correct amount. This could be helpful in terms of improving your income, but it's worth checking first to make sure you're right about it being less through them. Bear in mind they usually take overtime into consideration if it's relatively regular.

HRV

It would definately be lower- on the csa calulator it was about 400 minus the deduction for the number of nights we have them so I think it was about 340 ish. However this would not go down well with her at all and i really dont think he wants to rock the boat.

I guess I'm a little jealous of how she's managed to aquire quite a nice life from the mess she left. I desperately want to have time off with my future children when they're babies (as she did), work part time when they're little ( as she did), be able to take them to school, collect them from a child minder at 4pm (as she does), go to their sports days. I just feel so sad that I will miss all this and she has it- it seems so unfair when we both work so hard