Tax credits investigating me please help

julieph66

Hi I'm hoping somebody may be able to help.
During the school summer holidays I received a letter from the Tax Credit office saying they needed proof my 5 year old daughter lives with me!

I called them and they said they had crosschecked me against Child Benefit and seen that I don't receive it so need proof my daughter lives with me. They are correct, I gave up Child Benefit so my estranged husband could claim it and consequently also claim Housing Benefit to enable him to live somewhere half decent for when my daughter stays over. However it's beyong annoying as before I gave it up I called Tax Credits to see if it would impact my payments and they said no!
They then stopped my payments the 3rd week in August!

Anyway, I had to wait until the school was open because they wanted a letter from them confirming my daughter went there. In the meantime I gathered together my receipts for food, uniform, hobbies, days out, presents, sundries, my daughters passport and bank book. I received the letter from her school on 3 Sept and sent everything off to the Tax Credits office Special Delivery on 4 Sept.
I tracked the letter on 5 Sept which confirmed it had been received and signed for that morning. Two weeks later I called the tax credits office who told me they hadnt received my documents! When I pointed out I had proof that they did have them 2 weeks earlier they backtracked and said they had been received but hadnt been allocated to anybody to process.
I called back in another 2 weeks time (today) and they said they had received my documents but it would take another 6-8 weeks to process.
So as advised by so many people with similar experiences on here I have contacted my local MP's office who then came back to me this afternoon to say she had called Tax Credits and they had received my documents on 18 Sept!
What in the world is happening with this system when we are lied to and so are our MP's who are just trying to help.
I've had no tax credits for 6 weeks and have no idea how we are going to survive another 8 weeks of this!

Does anyone have any ideas please?

TELLIT01

What will be concerning Tax Credits is that Child Benefit is normally paid to the person having the main responsibility for the child. As the benefit is being paid to your ex they need to check.

MissMoneypenny

julieph66 wrote: »

I gave up Child Benefit so my estranged husband could claim it and consequently also claim Housing Benefit to enable him to live somewhere half decent for when my daughter stays over.

Receiving Child Benefit won't make any difference to his Housing Benefit claim.

Or are you saying he is claiming your child lives with him, so that he can get the 2 bedroom rate of HB?

nannytone_2

you anfd your ex are both trying to maximise benefit entitlement.
and i can fault you for it.
but you also have to accept that there will be a higher degree pf investegation into your claim.
you are letting him say that he has care of the child in order to maximise his housing benefit.
yet you want to claim the child to maximise tax credits.
you cant have it both ways

kelpie35

It would be interesting to see if you have explained the full reason to your MP as to why your benefit has been stopped.

You will need to ask your ex to bail you out till a full investigation is done.

Personally I think that it is wrong for you to have given up your CB so as your ex can live in a nice house/flat and claim HB and CT benefits. Does his pay not cover his housing costs?

FBaby

Do you realise that if your DD is living with you and you are the resident parent, your ex is claiming CB illegally. Tax credits are likely to flag this to them and they will investigate him. That might trigger an investigation as to whether you are really are separated. That was a really bad idea to relinquish your child benefit.

nannytone_2

it isnt illegal to claim child benefit for a child that doesnt reside with you.

julieph66

Thanks everyone for your input and opinions I dont think there is anything I can do other than keep chasing them for updates

pmlindyloo

julieph66 wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your input and opinions I dont think there is anything I can do other than keep chasing them for updates

I agree that the only thing you can do is chase them for up dates. The only other possibility is that if you have a large well resourced CAB near you they could ring and ask on your behalf.

Sometimes this can speed things up.

At the very least be sure to ask if there is any particular evidence that they require to sort this out.

Nothing worse than another letter saying they need ............... which will then cause another delay.

tomtontom

Can you clarify please OP - your ex is claiming HB as if your daughter lives with him, and you are claiming CTC as if she lives with you? Where does she live the majority of the time, do you receive child support payments from him?

pmlindyloo

As you have found child benefit can be awarded to the non resident parent (ie. the father) if they have some financial responsibility for them.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/ccmmanual/ccm18010.htm

However, the same does not apply to child tax credits. The child must be living with the parent for child tax credits to be eligible.

Therefore I am wondering if a letter from the father saying that he has been granted CB but confirms that you are the parent with residence may help.

Did the child's father receive a letter from CB confirming this? That may also be useful.