Should I still be claiming tax credits and child benefit

SKSN2003

My son did not get into university in September because his A level grades were not good enough so he went back to college to do some A level retakes. He just about managed to go 12 hours a week and both tax credits and child benefit carried on paying me. My son took his last exam in February, had his marks in March and thankfully now has the grades he needs to go to university. He left college.

I was told that because he was going on to university education that I could carry on claiming both tax credits and child benefit until the first Monday in September. A friend of mine has now told me that she thinks this may not be correct and on my tax credits renewals I'm not sure what to put because he is no longer in full time education. Does anyone know for sure whether these benefits should continue until September or should they have stopped by now.

Thanks for any help.

poppy10_2

How old is he?

SKSN2003

He will be 19 in June and he is now working between 20 and 30 hours a week until he goes to university.

Aarons_mummy

If he works over 24 hours per week then you're not entitled anyway, I *think* you can claim until September but not entirely sure on that one.

Aarons_mummy

Child tax credit says you can't claim tax credit:

they are aged 16 or over, have left full-time non-advanced education or

approved training and are in paid work for 24 hours or more a week

I would contact both agencies and let them know of any changes to avoid overpayment.

sueturnersmith

Full Time Education for this purpose means they are taught or supervised for an average of 12 hours a week, so you may still qualify, because presumably his study was supervised?

But I would check regarding the hours he is now working.

MrsManda

Your entitlement to CB will have ended when he started working more than 24 hours a week.

It sounds like he officially left education which counts for CB (for example was no longer spending at least 12 hours a week on average doing study) in February which means if it hasn't stopped due to him working, it should stop from the 31st May.

If your child goes back to school or college to take exams

You can normally still get Child Benefit after your child leaves school or college if they were entered for exams before they left. The exams must be for the course they were doing before they left - and the course must have counted for Child Benefit.
Once your child has finished their last exam, your Child Benefit will normally carry on from the date of the last exam until the week that includes the earliest of:

• last day of February
• 31 May
• 31 August
• 30 November

Your Child Benefit will stop straightaway if any of the following happen after your child has left school or college:

• your child starts paid work for 24 hours a week or more

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/ChildBenefitandChildTrustFund/Childbenefits/KeepingyourChildBenefituptodate/ChildBenefitafter16/DG_073812

I 'think' it's the same rules for CTC as well

SKSN2003

Checked sons working hours and averaging over the last 3 months he has done 22 hours a week so hasn't hit the magic 24. Spoke to tax credits today and the first person I spoke to said they should have stopped on the day he took his last exam, or last went to college full time, which was in February. I explained this was different from what I had been told before. They went off to speak to someone more technical, came back and said that as long as he is going to university when the new school year starts then I can still claim tax credits and it doesn't matter what hours he works. If he changes his mind about going to university then I need to contact them and tell them and the claim will stop from when he changed his mind. Doesn't totally put my mind at rest but at least they know and hopefully the telephone call should be recorded.

Haven't spoken to child benefit yet.

Thanks for the replies.

nad1611

Child Benefit seem to know what they're talking about more often than Tax Credit in my experience. I had 3 different answers from Child Tax Credit when my child went onto non advanced education and it ran on into her 18-19th year.
I think a call to the Child Benefit line would be the best port of call, I presume that you would have given them this same info when they asked for it last year when your son continued his non advanced education.Good Luck.