Income Support, Benefits and Children Savings

wazza

Have asked this a long time ago but cannot find my post.

Just wondering if circumstances has changed regarding to benefits/savings rule.

i am a lone parent with three children under the age of 11. my partner simply left us and don't pay towards the upbringing of the children etc etc. Since she is working part time CSA can't do much.

When she left she had taken the childrens saving books and other documents. The children had in total about £5000 in their accounts 3 years ago. The mother had saved their birthday money etc and put it into their account. She also put some of her own money into it. On the accounts book i was listed as one of the account holders because of the childrens age. This caused problems with the benefit office. I asked my partner to get a form to have my name removed from the account books and add hers.

She refuses to give me the books in case i will spend the money.

Have filled the forms etc and the books now has her name on the account.

Am i right in saying that if my name was on the book half of the savings will be classed as mine?

will i be affected if she continues putting money into the childrens account and the totla is above the £6000 savings limit? what effect will it have on me since i have the children with me?

bigbill

Your right to be worried.

I'm not 100% sure but I think the £6,000 savings limit is ony for the IS claimant, its still set at a maixmum £3,000 for any child additions.

If right that would mean you would get no IS addition for any child with over £3,000 in savings and could already have been overpaid.

The safest and easist way would be for you to claim the child additions from Child Tax Credit its the same amount as IS would pay but the savings are not an issue.

Scarlett1

wazza wrote: »

Have filled the forms etc and the books now has her name on the account.

Am i right in saying that if my name was on the book half of the savings will be classed as mine?

will i be affected if she continues putting money into the childrens account and the totla is above the £6000 savings limit? what effect will it have on me since i have the children with me?

if your name isnt on the savings books then there isnt a problem, but if your name stayed on there whatever is in the accounts will be looked at as 'yours' as you will have access to the money and your benefits adjusted accordingly.

bigbill

Scarlett1 wrote: »

if your name isnt on the savings books then there isnt a problem

Thats not right, this person has child benefit and is claiming child additions from Income Support for the children.

This is not about who owns or has access to the money.

But do the children have savings over set allowable amounts, read the origianl post.

Scarlett1

bigbill wrote: »

Thats not right, this person has child benefit and is claiming child additions from Income Support for the children.

This is not about who owns or has access to the money.

But do the children have savings over set allowable amounts, read the origianl post.

try reading the post properly, the OP was asking if his ex keeps putting money into the childrens savings account what effect will it have on him !! :rolleyes: having access to the money is a factor when claiming benefits, otherwise there would be a massive loop hole in stashing money into childrens accounts for benefits purposes, but this doesnt relate to the OP so BOT.

real1314

Ok, here's my clarification:

It doesn't matter whose name is on the book. What matters is whose money it is. If I was voluntary treasurer for a local self help group and could access their funds as my name was on the account, it wouldn't be classed as mine.
Nor if it was a child's money, my child or otherwise. However I would be expected to be able to show that the money was exclusively the childs, and that (for exmaple) it was not money that I had passed to the child so that I could continue to receive the same amount of benefit.

The kids can have up to £3000.00 before the amounts payable for them are affected.

So, to answer the questions;
"Am i right in saying that if my name was on the book half of the savings will be classed as mine?" The answer is NO.

"will i be affected if she continues putting money into the childrens account and the totla is above the £6000 savings limit?" NO, not for that reason but see below.

"what effect will it have on me since i have the children with me?" If any of the children have more than £3000 then the amount paid for that child will be reduced by £1 for every £250 or part of £250 over £3000.

All this is from memory without recourse to guidance or rules, but I'm fairly sure it's accurate.

bigbill

real1314 wrote: »

Ok, here's my clarification:

"what effect will it have on me since i have the children with me?" If any of the children have more than £3000 then the amount paid for that child will be reduced by £1 for every £250 or part of £250 over £3000.

All this is from memory without recourse to guidance or rules, but I'm fairly sure it's accurate.

The child additions due from Income Support are not reduced by £1 for every £250 over the limit at £3,000 as you say its simply no child addition is paid for ANY child with over £3,000 in savings, hence the reason that CTC should now be claimed to stop any questions or hassle later.

wazza

Thanks for the replies.

My understanding is that my partner is trying to avoid having savings in her own account and is spreading it over the children's accounts. Why i don't know. Probably to let others know she has low amount in her saving account. Maybe preparing to go on benefits or to avoid CSA????

The children's account address detail is to her home therefore i do not receive any statements so i can check how much savings the children have.

real1314

Do as bigbill says - claim Child tax credit instead. Same money, fewer restrictions.

greatboy

can anyone tell me how much a child can have in savings as im wanting toput money away if your on income support and what about trust fund will that effect income support

bestpud

Claim child tax credits for your children instead of income support as you will have to soon anyway. Better to beat the rush imo.

Then the money will have no impact whatsoever because they cannot take child savings into account for benefit purposes unless they can prove they were used in order to claim benefits.

There was a thread on this a while ago with all the relevent links.