Living with my girlfreind

hbgirl

by the way, maintenance from her ex could be the all important factor, as this is income that is not counted for housing benefit and council tax benefit (at the moment) so would really help as a source of income.

kathryn77_2

hbgirl, does this vary on your area?? my council have always taken maintenance from my ex into consideration as income for my HB & CTB.
Many Thanks

Jowo_2

kathryn77 wrote: »

hbgirl, does this vary on your area?? my council have always taken maintenance from my ex into consideration as income for my HB & CTB.
Many Thanks

I don't know about maintenance paid outside CSA but perhaps HBgirl can confirm the situation. These links seem to indicate maintenance does not affect them.

http://www.cmoptions.org/en/maintenance/prepare.asp

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/Expectingorbringingupchildren/DG_10018808

" Since 12 April 2010, all parents with care who receive income-related benefits are allowed to keep all of their child maintenance....

all the child maintenance collected by the CSA will be paid in full to the parent with care. The amount they receive will not affect their benefits."
http://www.csa.gov.uk/en/about/faq/on-benefits.asp

Mupette

I was led to believe that any 'child related income' is disregarded now.

But i can only say what the others are saying the 'sperm doner' should be expected to pay towards his child.

AsknAnswer2

kathryn77 wrote: »

hbgirl, does this vary on your area?? my council have always taken maintenance from my ex into consideration as income for my HB & CTB.
Many Thanks

It doesn't vary by area, it's the law and came into being two years ago.

A full disregard was applied to Child support payments from housing benfit claims on 27th October 2008. This was set by The Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No.2) Regulations 2008. If your child support payments have continued to be included in your HB calculations as income since 27.10.08, you need to contact the local authority that pays your benefit and ask for them to re-assess your payments retrospectively on the basis of the disregard the law set. If they have been taking the CS into consideration as income and not disregarding it in full, you will have been underpaid and they will either credit your HB account or send you a cheque for the amount underpaid.

The disregard was applied to all other benefits from 12th April 2010. This was set by The Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 4) Regulations 2009

Indie_Kid

hbgirl wrote: »

the first thing to definitely go will be income support as she is no longer a lone parent. child benefit will stay the same. child tax credit i *think* might decrease due to your income? but you will probably get working tax credits (if you work 30hrs+). but i can't say how much on these.

It's only 30 if you're not responsible for a child or are disabled. (16 for those 2 groups)

Malcior

Phewf thats all a lot to take in. I'll try the benefits calculators as soon as I can get all our financial details together. How accurate is entitledto?

Malcior

Mupette wrote: »

I was led to believe that any 'child related income' is disregarded now.

But i can only say what the others are saying the 'sperm doner' should be expected to pay towards his child.

Thats what I keep saying to her. But it's a complicated matter for her at the moment, which I hope will be remedied soon.

amynphil

I receive NO csa or payments from my little girls dad never have done and never will do....His words were ''ill go to prison before I pay anythin'' 6yrs later I am happily married to a man who is now and always will be my little girls dad as far as Im concerned. So basically what I am trying to say is that it has never affected my ct or wt credit and I have never been told by anyone that I have to apply for any monies from him. As for receiving maintenance I cant answer how that may affect the monies you recieve I can only tell you that receiving no maintenance wont affect the amount you receive...or hasnt affected what I receive anyway.

Malcior

Sorry to reopen an old post, but just wanted to thank everyone for their great advice. Were taking the plunge and are moving into our fantastic new home at the end of this month. We are now engaged and plan to get married next year (but thats a whole other thread). We used the estimates given to us by the Benefit Calculators and my income on MSE's budget planner and we come out in the green with plenty left over to save for the wedding.

Once again many thanks.