Income support

poppy12345

Child maintenance isn't classed as income when calculating any means tested benefits.



However, as he is the father of your children then they could say that you shouldn't have been claiming as a single person. If this happens then you'll end up having an overpayment of benefits and possibly a fine on top.

System

Ive been going to back to work interviews every 6 months if it was an issue why didnt they tell me that then. Surely theres people that have children to the 1 man but arent living together? How do they decide if i was falsely claiming, because i didnt know i was doing something wrong would it help if me and him made a joint claim now? Or should i just wait for them to contact me

calcotti

Wait to see what they decide. You haven’t necessarily done anything wrong. At the moment DWP are simply investigating in order to decide. Many investigations show nothing is wrong.

If he only stays occasionally and you are not living together and if the money is child maintenance then it should be OK.

The compensation payment you referred to in one of your posts may be an issue depending on how much it was. If it was injuries compensation I think it is possible to put it into a trust which removes it from consideration but this needs to be done within 12 months of receiving the money.

TELLIT01

DWP may require a written statement from the person depositing the money into your account stating that he is the father of the children and the money is intended for child maintenance.
As has already been said, not actually living in the same property doesn't automatically mean you won't be treated as a couple for benefit purposes.

System

Yea the compensation was from victim support so i will have 52 weeks before they need to take it into consideration. I got a large amount and only paid debt off and got furniture. The rest is still sitting there. Its very difficult to know whats right or wrong as everything online is pretty vague.
I had no idea that they treat you as a couple claiming benefits when not living together. I wish this was made clear to me at my back to work interviews.

calcotti

Danik1989 wrote: »

I had no idea that they treat you as a couple claiming benefits when not living together. I wish this was made clear to me at my back to work interviews.

In most cases they won’t. From what you have posted, particularly that your childrens’ father has another address that he normally lives at, I don’t think you will be. However you will just have to wait and see.

If the outstanding compensation, together with any other capital you have, is less than £6,000 it will make no difference to your benefits even when it is taken into account. If it will be more than this and is Criminal Injuries Compensation then, as mentioned previously, I believe it is possible to place the compensation money in a trust which means that it will be ignored indefinitely.