the unfair child tax credit system

GirlFromMars_2

Have you tried looking at it from the other perspective? How would an adult feel still being treated as a child and unable to get benefits in their own right because they are still being treated as a child when they are no longer studying full time at school/college?

The benefits paid to your son, should (at least after the assessment period) be greater than the amount you lose. If he were to continue to be treated as a child you as a family, and he specifically as an adult would lose out.

The child/adult switch is deliberately set at the point the child starts University or moves into the workplace, as this is the point where most children leave home and have the potential to earn their own money or receive University bursaries. And the point where ties with the family are beginning to loosen.

Things are indeed different for your family. And things are hard for every family with a disabled child moving from child services to adult services. The major problem you are facing is that you really didn't have time to plan for your son's sudden move into University.

While I don't condone attacks on you, can I suggest that in future you engage with people who are trying to offer you help and support (You were told by numerous people early on in this thread that your son would be entitled to ESA, and you ignored all of them). Instead you appeared to want to continue a "woe is me" discussion about how unfair it all was, and continue arguments with those who were attacking you.

Yes it's hard, and we do all appreciate that. Moving from child services to adult services are not easy, and you are having to do it in a rush. There are however plenty of people here who will be able to help you as soon as you accept that this is the way it is.

Ultimately your family will end up receiving more money, and your son (who sounds like an intelligent young guy) will benefit from being treated as an adult. So, now you know ESA is the way forward, you can put your energy into working out how the switch will work with as little disruption as possible to your family's finances.

Please note, your son will also be moved from DLA to PIP as he is becoming an adult, so this is another change you will need to work through.

Good luck with the future, hopefully your son will love his new course, and embrace his new life as a responsible adult.

dodger1

Blackpool_Saver wrote: »

Out of his DLA/ESA it is not unreasonable to expect him to contribute fully to his keep.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ this.

fellwalker09

Thanks, Girl From Mars.
Useful advice. I don't wish to continue on with a 'woe is me' discussion as you say, and, as I recognised earlier this was the way it was going. I was rather opposed to some of the harsher comments and responded, waffling along the way, which did make it sound woeful. I won't make that mistake again. But there's no use crying over spilt milk.
I only posted, as I said before, because I went into a blind panic, which is always a waste of time but now feeling more positive.
But I appreciate your help and my son will be okay. He'll get the support he needs, I'm sure and he'll no doubt be glad to be able to claim benefit which will obviously assist him with what he wants to do. Best wishes to you.

GirlFromMars_2

I don't blame you for the panic at all. So far as you knew you'd been told he couldn't claim ESA and you'd be losing all his child benefits. Anyhow, we're passed that now, so we can move along!

If you need any help with understanding how the switch from CTC to ESA works, I'm sure someone will have some useful advice. I'm not sure when your son is supposed to put in the ESA claim exactly, but at some point he will obviously need to claim, and I believe to begin the claim he will need a fitnote (sicknote) from his doctor.

Once the claim has started he will be sent an ESA50 form to fill in with a lot of questions about the way his illness affects him. Before he completes this form you should get some advice and look at the descriptors against which he will be tested. (They are not always obvious from the questions asked!) As his claim will be income based, then he will also need to fill out a long form about his finances.

Hopefully you and he can sit down and have a discussion about the family's finances, and how things will be worked out in the future. Hey may just want to give you money and have you continue to manage the household budget, or now may be the time to think about who pays for which bills. If you can set the right tone now things should be much easier for the family moving forward as hopefully he is able to move towards more independence.

As a starting point, ESA is supposed to pay for his groceries, utilities, leisure activities, furniture and personal possessions. DLA/PIP is supposed to pay for the increased costs of being disabled, including transport, personal care, equipment relating to his disability and extra costs of cooking and eating relating to disability.

If he were to move out in the future he may be entitled to Housing Benefit to cover housing costs, although he cannot expect to receive this to pay you rent.

When_the_going_gets_tough

Remember that the support for university students is normally by student loans for maintenance. I don't know how that works for the OU but for most young people that is why there is a difference between college and university courses - there are no student loans for college courses.

stevemLS

It seems to me that OP perhaps used some ill-judged language in her first post, which she plainly now realises.

This board is littered with threads from parents who suddenly realise they will lose child related benefits, yes its entirely predictable, but equally I guess you can understand the panic at the loss of household income.

I do find it difficult to have sympathy with people in those circumstances, they must have known that CHILD benefits will cease when their offspring is no longer a child, but then what do I know.

I am certain OP and her son will sort themselves out, the adult benefit system remains comparatively generous to people in her son's position.

FBaby

OP, good luck to you and I appreciate you coming back to explain the reasons for your emotional first post.

From my perspective, I do get fired up when people who claim children and disability benefits mention the 'poverty' card because I've been on these forums for some time and I now know that most families like yours will have a higher disposable income than some families who have no choice but to pay into the high tax band because of their income, but with high childcare and travel to work costs, will end up with less. If someone earning £55K came on this forum saying that the system is unfair that they should loose child benefit and that will put them close to the poverty line, they wouldn't get very nice responses back, yet they might very well have less disposable income than your family.

Losing a stream of income you've been relying on is never nice whichever the circumstances, but it does happen to many families every day and I think most manage to make changes that mean they do cope better than they had anticipated.

Icequeen99

fellwalker09 wrote: »

Thanks everyone. Really appreciate the positive comments/advice.
Sheeps 68 - thanks for your post. The benefits system can almost feel like a trap in a sense but then families and individuals are so fortunate to have had the chance of tax credits -they were'nt always there. (something I do recognise). Unfair is certainly a more personal opinion - it is as you say, a nightmare; difficult for some to navigate and very variable. I'm okay about this now. Having had an initial panic, I have attracted some negative comments, clearly the way my own words have been perceived - just goes to show that on social sites we perhaps need to be exact/specific. You are right about my son claiming esa -I've told him he can get this (actually, his social worker told him about this before but as he was going to college he wasn't eligible, hence why I didn't think he was eligible now).
I'll probably get shot in the foot once more but the only point I was making is that I find it an odd distinction to award tax credit for a 19 year old college student, whereas an 18 year old beginning a degree is not eligible. To me, it's the age of the young person that counts, not what they are studying. Is the 19 year old college student still a child? No, they are definitely an adult, allowed to drink/smoke/frequent pubs etc & vote. But I digress -these are the rules of the DWP. So please everyone forgive me if I have sounded ignorant etc, but perhaps you can see my point? It is the age that is significant. There is no relevant distinction to be made from college courses to uni courses. The college student is still an adult, working on his future. As for me, it no longer matters. And that's all I wish to say.
Thanks again Sheeps and everyone for the positive posts.

But there is a distinction between the courses. Advanced education courses generally attract student finance funding which your son will have access to. Non-advanced courses don't and continue to qualify for tax credits/child benefit.

IQ