Tax Credit investigation

msrobinhood

Hi there, I'm hoping that someone will be able to help or advise.
A friend of mine has a small child and had been in a same sex relationship for over 5 years. About 2 years ago the relationship ended but they still lived in the same flat but just not as a family unit even though my friend did not pay rent. They did not share responsibilites for the child or anything like that. She has just found out that she her tax credits are being investigated. She is a single mum, has an incurable and debilitating illness and so doesn't work and is moving into a Housing Association flat on Monday (the reason why she had to stay in the same flat as her ex-partner was because she had nowhere to live - her child has autism so needs stability).
Does anyone know what is likely to happen in a case such as this?
Many thanks.

Aarons_mummy

So she changed the claim to a single one but was still living in the same property? Did she tell them this when she called to change the claim?

If she just changed the claim and didn't state they were still living in the same house then she will have to repay the amount they say, she'll be able to set up a repayment plan though I would imagine.

karenx

Technically she wasnt a single parent as the other parent was still in the same house every day.

I dont understand how for 2 years you can live in the same house as your ex partner and other parent of your child and not both share responsobility and help each other out and not live as a family unit??

no-oneknowsme

msrobinhood wrote: »

A friend of mine has a small child and had been in a same sex relationship for over 5 years.
.

karenx wrote: »

Technically she wasnt a single parent as the other parent was still in the same house every day.

I dont understand how for 2 years you can live in the same house as your ex partner and other parent of your child and not both share responsobility and help each other out and not live as a family unit??

Karen , I dont think the other person is the other parent of the child involved.....

dmg24

no-oneknowsme wrote: »

Karen , I dont think the other person is the other parent of the child involved.....

A parent does not have to have a biological link to the child!

Oldernotwiser

no-oneknowsme wrote: »

Karen , I dont think the other person is the other parent of the child involved.....

Why do you think that? People in same sex relationships can have children together and the OP's child sounds young enough to have been born in the last 7 years.

no-oneknowsme

dmg24 wrote: »

A parent does not have to have a biological link to the child!

Why Dmg ....where exactly in my post did I say that they do ?

no-oneknowsme

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Why do you think that? People in same sex relationships can have children together .

Thanks for the biology lesson (even though it is not required thanks) but I was actually making the assumption that the child was not the responsibility of the other adult involved as the OP made the statement in her opening post that although they continued to live in the same house,they did not share responsibility of the child...

Technically though as only one of them is actually the biological parent of the child,on termination of the same sex relationship surely the NON biological parent can (if they so wish) walk away from the child without any come back? surely they cannot be forced to pay maintenace for a child being raised in a same sex relationship? (which at the end of the day belongs to someone else).

Until we know the full details from the OP everything else is just based on assumptions.