Son dropping out of college-am I still entitled to tax credits

Ohara27

Hi, I am new on here and desperate for some advise please
Basically my 17 yr old son (18 in December) is in his second yr of college. He struggled in his first year and I now only 2 months into the new term he is really struggling again. He has been desperately down and has not been attending college. After 2 weeks of arguments and him totally withdrawing I have finally got him to talk and he has said college is making him so miserable,the courses he chose are too hard and he cant cope and hates them and he doesn't want to carry on.

He has found a course he would really love to do but he wouldn't be able to start it till next Sept in the mean time he said he could do some short courses (either on line or in school) to help him whilst carrying on with his part time job he has had since April (roughly 12 hours a week) until then.

My dilemma is I am a single mum,work part time (18 1/2hours) claiming working/child tax credits,get child benefit and get some maintenance from his father and because my son is dropping this on me I don't know how it will affect all these things cos if I lose them all I won't be able to survive just on my wage

I have frantically been looking at jobs all weekend to see if I can find another part time job to boost my wage or whether to see if I can get a full time job in something completely different as there is no chance of upping my hours in my current job. I am out of my mind as I won't be able to do this over night it could take weeks to find further employment and I don't know if all my benefits will just stop

Could anyone advise me please if I would still be entitled to anything and what I would need to do/who to contact

Many thanks

shop-to-drop

Has he spoken to a tutor at college about changing his course? He's going to need to continue with something full time for him to still be your dependent and for you to claim maintenance and benefits for him. Does he have a part time job? If so would he be able to get more hours if he dropped out and be able to pay his own way? These are his two options I think if he just drops out you will lose benefits and maintenance and he will be too young to claim anything himself straight away.

Icequeen99

Do you have any other children?

If not, and you don't qualify for the disability element, you will lose WTC and CTC from the date he leaves.

To keep WTC you will need to work at least 30 hrs.

IQ

PippaGirl_2

I gave my child a choice of continuing in full time education or paying me £200 per month for which they would need to have found the job before leaving college as I simply couldn't feed/keep them on nothing. They chose to remain in college. They need to take on the responsibility of the decisions they make and not just dump them on a parent.

dundeediva

Hi

If you don't have any other children, when he leaves college your WTC and CTC would end (unless you have disability element of WTC). You don't qualify for a 4 weeek run on of WTC as there is no change to your job, your payments wuld simply end. It may be worth getting him to register with connexions (careers service) in the meantime as you would then qualify for a 20 week run on of both WTC and CTC.

Otherwise can he maybe increase his hours of work? It may be worth seeing if that's an option, get him to pay you board to make up some of the difference.

Ohara27

Thank you for your reply.

We have discussed doing different courses and talking to college about this but I think it is the college that is getting him down and doesn't want to go back there. I know we need to inform college but this has really happened over the weekend.

He has a small part time job and could maybe up his hours and help financially to the household but because he still wants to carry on in education part time for now if he can find a course but full time again next year it's knowing what to do for the best right now.

Because it has happened so quick I am just panicking that everything (tax credits etc) will stop overnight and I won't be able to cope

Dunroamin

If he's working for 12 hours a week he should be able to contribute most of this to pay for his keep while he's out of education.

shop-to-drop

Maybe talk to his dad too to see if he is prepared to carry on paying the maintenance for those months when he is only part time.

Ohara27

He said he will pay board with his part time job but it just won't cover the same as any tax credits I get at the minute but I know will help. His dad hit and missed with payments as it was so getting help from him may not work but thank you for your advise they are things that could help for now.

He is my only son so I guess everything is just going to stop benefit wise even though I could try connexions and see if they could help, a 20 wk extension would help so much in me finding more employment in the mean time.

BigAunty

Icequeen99 wrote: »

...

To keep WTC you will need to work at least 30 hrs.

Lone parents only require to work 16 hours per week to qualify for WTC. Couples with kids need to work 24 hours while it is single adults without disabilities or dependents that must work 20.

Dunroamin

BigAunty wrote: »

Lone parents only require to work 16 hours per week to qualify for WTC. Couples with kids need to work 24 hours while it is single adults without disabilities or dependents that must work 20.

Does the OP count as a lone parent if she doesn't have a child who's eligible for CB?