Income - benefits and business

edwinamorgan

Hi all,


wondering if someone can point me in the right direction. My DH son lives with us - moved in early last year. Decision didn't go down too well with the ex, but it was the lad's choice and we were more than happy to have him. At the time, there was lots of issues and we didn't pursue her for any maintenance payments - it seemed a lot easier to let it go after the stress of him moving out. We also didn't feel we needed anything from her, we were in a good position financially and didn't need any extra.
Anyway - 2 years on, lad is starting at college and things have changed for me at work and we could do with a bit of support from her. We are going to try the reasonable route and ask her to contribute a small amount each month - if it just covers bus fares to college that will be a huge help. However, previous experience says she will tell us where to stick it.


This is where I need guidance. We believe she is claiming benefits - lad always bemoaning the state of their finances when he comes back from there, but we are assuming here. BUT, he also tells us in detail about the business she is running on the side -she has stock all over the house. A few of my friends also buy stuff from her, so I know what she doing. If we cannot get her to agree to what we feel is a reasonable amount and have to ask for an assessment which I know we will have to pay for, how can we get the business she is running taken into account? We assume she isn't paying tax on her earnings - DH has previous experience of her running these ventures and none were declared to the taxman. Or will they just take the evidence of her benefits and not look any further? I don't want to start down a road that is going to lead to lots of stress for us if there's no real point.


Any guidance gratefully received - I am expecting that there's nothing we can do about her on the side earnings, but would be good to know for sure before we start down that road!!


Thanks

HappyMJ

If she is on income related benefits then the assessment will be £7 per week.

If she has undeclared income then you can't make an assessment against that. You could report it to HMRC but that will cause a lot more issues for her including the possibility of prison if she's been claiming fraudulently and then you get nothing.

edwinamorgan

Thought that would be what we were looking at. Thanks, at least we know what to expect now!!

CKhalvashi

As above, you're looking at £7 a week, which unfortunately when raising a child goes absolutely nowhere.

sulkisu

She may be claiming working tax credits - and its all above board. Perhaps ask her to give the bus fare etc directly to your son, she might be more agreeable to that.