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

dktreesea

Dunroamin wrote: »

Sorry, this is absolute rubbish!

The majority of college courses are for two years, A levels and BTEC National to name two. If they are level 3 or below then they are non advanced FE. Many student have 3 years of non advanced FE after leaving school as parents can claim CB/CTC up to the age of 20.

Your son was doing an HNC which is equivalent to the first year of a degree, level 4 and counts as advanced. He would have received a student loan which he should have used to pay towards his keep as intended, which is why your child related benefits finished . The situation had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that this was his second year at college.

We are looking at a similar situation to this, where the first year of college is at a lower level than HNC but in the second and third years that's when the HNC course takes over.

What the Scottish education department told me is that children of low income families, once they get to that stage, i.e. where parents no long receive CTC for them, are meant to apply for a grant in addition to, or instead of, their student loan.

Between school and college, and maybe between one college course and waiting for the next to start, my understanding is that the student joins something like Connexions or Careers Scotland (not sure what the equivalent is in England and Wales or N.I.) and that entitles the parents to a 20 week continuation of CTC. it could be, as in our case, that this won't quite bridge the gap to college. In that case, HMRC have told us that after the 20 weeks the CTC stops and then, once the first day of college starts, you have to go back to HMRC to get the CTC reinstated.

With child benefit, it is worth considering which day to withdraw from a course if going out of education, because if on the 27th of February, the CB would only be paid to the 28th of Feb, but if the first of March it would run on until the 31st of May, i.e. until the earliest of 4 dats, being the end of Feb, May, August and November.

dktreesea

BigAunty wrote: »

Yeah, good point, I was wrong. If he's classed as not being in education, then he's not considered a dependent. Until he re-enrols, he will be in the grey area of the parent not qualifying for CB, having to work longer to qualify for WTC and clearly not earning enough to cover his household costs.

This may not just be CTC and WTC that's affected. Once the student is out of education and therefore not a dependant, however temporarily, housing benefit and council tax benefit can also be affected. Where we live there is a £11.45 a week claw back of LHA once the child becomes a non dependent, even if that child has no income of their own and isn't of an age where they can qualify for something like job seekers allowance (i.e. not yet 18.)

Caz3121

dktreesea wrote: »

Once the student is out of education and therefore not a dependant, however temporarily, housing benefit and council tax benefit can also be affected. Where we live there is a £11.45 a week claw back of LHA once the child becomes a non dependent, even if that child has no income of their own and isn't of an age where they can qualify for something like job seekers allowance (i.e. not yet 18.)

Which council is this? most make no non-dependant deduction in that scenario

eg
No deduction is made from Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit if the non-dependant:

• Is aged under 18 years old and has left full time education

sammyjammy

What was the OP planning to do if son had continued the course when benefits would have stopped in September? Can those plans now be bought forward?

If under 18s are classed as NEETS (not in education, employment or training) its quite right that all benefits claimed on their behalf are withdrawn. My nephew has been in this situation for the last 12 months, left school with an offer of an apprenticeship that didn't work out, refused to go to college and has spent the last 12 months either lying in bed all day or on the Xbox whilst two hard working min wage parents stupidly struggle to keep him because they don't want to upset him. Sad as he had so much potential, he at least has the sense to look shameful and embarrassed when you ask him what he's been up to

nannytone_2

i think parents make it too easy for their kids. your nephew obviously know that he is going to be housed/fed/entertained by his parents, so why should he bother getting up early and go out looking for work to support himself?
everything he needs is already on tap!

there comes a time for 'tough love' and that seems to have been yesterday!

my kids had no option.
when they reached school leaving age they had a choice. get a job or stay at school because there was no way i was funding them if they chose to do nothing

dktreesea

Caz3121 wrote: »

Which council is this? most make no non-dependant deduction in that scenario

eg
No deduction is made from Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit if the non-dependant:

• Is aged under 18 years old and has left full time education

I thought what would happen is the housing benefit would increase if the household income goes down. But instead, the non dependant, under 18, can't get jsa but the applicable amount for the household goes down. Apparently, children who are NEET fall outside the scope of the benefits system.

krisskross

The situation for the OP has arisen unexpectedly but was going to happen very soon anyway.

The time to plan for the financial future was a few years ago. 18 hours work a week is seldom going to provide sufficient income to run a home. Blimey it's semi-retired!

dktreesea

nannytone wrote: »

i think parents make it too easy for their kids. your nephew obviously know that he is going to be housed/fed/entertained by his parents, so why should he bother getting up early and go out looking for work to support himself?
everything he needs is already on tap!

there comes a time for 'tough love' and that seems to have been yesterday!

my kids had no option.
when they reached school leaving age they had a choice. get a job or stay at school because there was no way i was funding them if they chose to do nothing

Fair enough, but until you are in the position of having a NEET child at home, how do you know what you would be prepared to do? You can't force someone else to give your child a job.

sammyjammy

dktreesea wrote: »

Fair enough, but until you are in the position of having a NEET child at home, how do you know what you would be prepared to do? You can't force someone else to give your child a job.

No but you can encourage that child back into education saying its either that or a job. Every time the subject of a practical course at college was discussed with my nephew he would throw a strop and say he didn't want it so the subject was dropped for fear of upsetting him. He used to be a nice intelligent young man but when I go home nowadays you can barely get a word out of him if you see him at all.

He'll look back in years to come and probably say to his parents why didn't you make me go.

bestpud

dktreesea wrote: »

Fair enough, but until you are in the position of having a NEET child at home, how do you know what you would be prepared to do? You can't force someone else to give your child a job.

No, but you can make their life less comfortable and not reward them with food, Internet etc while they are sat on their lazy rear all day!

I had a child in this situation and she knew she'd get nothing from us while she wasn't earning and would only keep £5 a week of any JSA she eventually claimed.

As it was, she did voluntary work until she made the right connections and acquired a reference to get an apprenticeship and she went straight from that into full time work. She now earns more than me and my husband!

I could have let her lie on her room all day but a bit of tough love was called for and that's exactly what she got! Don't get me wrong, we supported her in many ways, with interview techniques, her CV etc.

I haven't asked her but I suspect she'd thank me now for being that way! Do you think she'd thank me if she was still lounging about at the age of 20 with no job, no driving licence, no money to go to gigs/weekends away and no savings for when she eventually moves out? I think not!

Seriously, some parents need to get a grip and stop !!!!! footing around their children! It's neglect and bad parenting to let them wallow!