tax credits and single claim

Deals_2

a friend is now separated from her boyfriend . she has been told that she has to stop the joint claim and put in a single claim. by doing this it could take up to 3 weeks to set her up and she has no money at all with her children.They say she can be up to 3 weeks or more with no money at all. is this normal? should they not just update the record so she carries on getting her childcare and money for her children until she can get herself sorted?

nic2075

in my past experience they dont actually take 3 weeks. I found they took longer in April and July when the forms were due back in. I had went from a joint to a single claim a while back and the money was in on the normal day the next week.
If she holds off from telling her she may end up with an overpayment.

mazcrain

I went from a single claim to a joint claim last february when i moved in with my partner. My money stopped immediately and i was told it would take 3-4 weeks, i ended up waiting 6 weeks in the end. I assume its the same if you go from a joint claim to single

Floxxie

I went from a joint claim to a single claim - it took 11 weeks to receive payment.

ajones28

As she is going to be in a situation where she has no money, through no fault of her own, she can call Crisis Loans on 0800 169 9891. They can consider giving her a crisis loan to get her through until she is due to receive her benefits money. She needs to list the last money she had, what date she had it and what she spent it on. She also needs to list down what she needs now to get her through to when her benefit claim is sorted out. They will only give the loan for essentials such as food, gas and electricity (if your friend has meters for these).Tell her to make sue she asked for enough though as they will not give her another loan for the same time period unfortunately, so make sure she thinks it through thoroughy before stating how much she needs. Unfortunately 'mazcrain' is right it can take longer than 3 weeks, although every DWP office is different so could be quicker. The Crisis Loans dept. will speak to the BDC (Benefit Delivery Centre) who will be dealing with your friends claim and they will tell them roughly how long before the new claim is complete, according to how advanced it states the new claim is. Crisis Loans as I said will then provide money until that date. If it is still not sorted out on this date, your friend can ring back for another Crisis Loan to get her through to the date it will be done. Unfortunately your friend will have to pay the money back via her benefits but this is usually set at an affordable rate,and she will be advised how much, over the telephone, before she agrees to the loan. I know it is not ideal having to borrow money when she is due money anyway, but it is better than having no money whatsoever surely. Also tell her as well that if she does, for any reason , get refused for a Crisis Loan (very unlikely in her situation-but still a possibility) that she needs to call the BDC (the local Jobcentre in your area can give her this number), and explain that she has been refused a Crisis Loan and that she needs an Emergency payment of her benefits. It is not something that the DWP will willingly admit they can do, but it can be done-she just has to persevere.

Aarons_mummy

I went from a joint claim to a single claim and it took between 6-8 weeks to receive payment, it does get backdated but she should be prepared to have to wait a while for the claim to be sorted out.

As PP says if she really can't manage then a crisis loan may be the way forward to ensure she has money. If she can though could she not tell the childcare provider her situation and pay what her portion of the bill is (ie she pays £400 a month £300 from TC meaning she has £100 to pay towards it) and they may let her pay the TC portion once she receives the overpayment back?

karenx

She doesnt have no money coming in at all. She will still have her child benefit and as she is claiming the childcare element she must be working so will have wages too.
Plus she can ask her former partner for maintenance

AnxiousMum

Make sure that she is also getting child support for the child/children off of the father. If he is refusing to contribute, she should set up with the CSA immediately, as I believe the amounts owing will only be from when they contact him on her instruction.

Oldernotwiser

nic2075 wrote: »

If she holds off from telling her she may end up with an overpayment.

As she's already separated and hasn't told them yet, she may already have an overpayment.

apoorlykitten

in my experience from going to joint to single claim it was in my bank the following week on the normal day. and if she is working she will get her wages so yes she may fall behind slightly but will have the money to catch up fairly quickly. theyw ill not expect you to go with out for x amounts of weeks. the system is pretty quick. ive just started work and my tax credits were again correct and in the bank the following week. good luck to your friend

shiprob195

I went from a joint claim to a single when my ex H left us 18 months ago. I phoned them on a Monday morning and by Tuesday the following week my payment were set up in the bank:j.......the paper work took about 4 weeks to reach me though.

As a side note...make sure that you tell them ASAP.....My exH left us on the Friday evening...I waited til the Monday to phone the Tax Credit people.

As a result of waiting 3 days I had an overpayment of nearly £120 on the joint claim. :eek:

I am only liable for 50% of that though.....I am paying monthly DD to pay this off.

They are trying to get the rest from my ExH (
good luck with that.....lol);)