Child maintenance payments and confusion!

Star81

Hello all. I'm trying to help my friend who has several issues relating to money and child payments. He and his wife have been separated for around 2 years, they have 4 children. 2 are in their 20's but one is 16 and the other is 12. The 12 year old lives with her mother and her partner at his house. The 16 year old resides with her dad, my friend. Currently my friend has no fixed abode and is sharing his older son's room in a bedsit. The 16 year old is stopping with her grandparents. my friend is trying to secure a deposit for a privately rented 2 bedroom flat for himself and his daughter. He works full time but is struggling financially. Whilst together he and his wife were overpaid on tax credits and he has been left to pay the large debt back alone. He sees his 12 year old daughter every weekend so he contributes financially towards her in that way whilst his wife has nothing to do with their 16 year old daughter and has not seen her or paid a penny towards her care since they split up 2 years ago. She says if he tries to ask for money for their 16 year old she will go through the CSA to get money that way for their 12 year old. He is panicking about this. She also threatens him with CSA if he mentions her helping to pay back the tax credit arrears they owe jointly. He doesn't know if he's entitled to any Universal Credit; we did a rough calculation via Turn2Us using the address of a prospective flat he is hoping to move to. It showed he could potentially be entitled to £800 a month on UC but that does not factor the repayments needed to be made on the tax credit. We don't know much about the benefits or child payment system and are so confused and lost. Please help us! 

tightauldgit

It sounds a bit complicated to be honest but my take on it would be:

1. If the 16 year old isn't living with him then I don't think he's going to be eligible for any child maintenance. Is the 16 year old still in education or training? If not then they wouldn't be eligible to receive anything from CMS anyway. If they are then grandparents may be eligible to make a claim. 

2. He would be responsible for making maintenance payments for the 12 year old - you can see how much this would be using the calculator https://www.gov.uk/calculate-child-maintenance If he was to be claiming benefits then it may well be that the maintenance would be set at zero anyway. It's capped at £7 a week for anyone who is receiving state benefits so in the worst case it's not going to be a huge amount.

3. Is the mother working or on benefits? That's going to determine how much he might be due for 16 year old if they were living together. But bear in mind the child will have to remain in education or training to be eligible.

4. Seems like you need to get your friend applied for UC as soon as possible. 

5. On the tax credit arrears thing I really don't know anything about that - is that something that is in his sole name or a joint name thing? If it's a joint thing then it's unlikely she can just wash her hands of it. 

  

Star81

Hello Tightauldgit, thank you for your response and I’m sorry for the confusion, it’s a tricky one to explain at the best of times! Your numbered answers are very helpful, I’ll answer in the same way if I may:

1. the 16 year old has been living with him up until around 6 weeks ago when he was made essentially homeless and if he gets the flat he’s been promised in the next 2 weeks then she will move in there with him. She is currently finishing her GCSEs and is hoping to go to college in September so hopefully he’ll continue receiving the monthly £80 for her.

2. the 12 year old lives with her mother but sees her father on the weekend and up until he was made homeless she stayed overnights on weekends. He buys her clothes and pays for her on these weekends but doesn’t make any formal payments towards her

3. The mother doesn’t work and we’re guessing she’s claiming some kind of benefits but not sure what. She has washed her hands of the 16 year old and has no contact with her at all let alone contributing towards her care financially 

4. we’re trying to get to speak to Citizen’s Advice about signing up for benefits/UC

5. My friend and his wife made a joint UC claim whilst together and this was grossly overpaid. Although my friend has explained to UC that repayments  should be equally split between him and his wife they don’t seem to care and he has been left to pay nearly £2000 back himself and they’re threatening to up the repayments which he can’t afford. I think this is another matter for Citizen’s Advice as we don’t have a clue how to proceed 

thank you again for your answers, best wishes 👍

tightauldgit

Star81 said:

Hello Tightauldgit, thank you for your response and I’m sorry for the confusion, it’s a tricky one to explain at the best of times! Your numbered answers are very helpful, I’ll answer in the same way if I may:

1. the 16 year old has been living with him up until around 6 weeks ago when he was made essentially homeless and if he gets the flat he’s been promised in the next 2 weeks then she will move in there with him. She is currently finishing her GCSEs and is hoping to go to college in September so hopefully he’ll continue receiving the monthly £80 for her.

2. the 12 year old lives with her mother but sees her father on the weekend and up until he was made homeless she stayed overnights on weekends. He buys her clothes and pays for her on these weekends but doesn’t make any formal payments towards her

3. The mother doesn’t work and we’re guessing she’s claiming some kind of benefits but not sure what. She has washed her hands of the 16 year old and has no contact with her at all let alone contributing towards her care financially 

4. we’re trying to get to speak to Citizen’s Advice about signing up for benefits/UC

5. My friend and his wife made a joint UC claim whilst together and this was grossly overpaid. Although my friend has explained to UC that repayments  should be equally split between him and his wife they don’t seem to care and he has been left to pay nearly £2000 back himself and they’re threatening to up the repayments which he can’t afford. I think this is another matter for Citizen’s Advice as we don’t have a clue how to proceed 

thank you again for your answers, best wishes 👍

if both parties are likely on or going to be on benefits then the child maintenance issue is going to cancel out with each party effectively owing the other one £7 a week so that shouldn't be a consideration to worry about in terms of pursuing the other things. 

I think speaking to Citizens Advice is a good first step - I am not up to speed with how the benefits system works with overpayments but I imagine they just try to claw it back from whoever they can get it from. They shouldn't be taking back overpayments if it's causing genuine hardship though and I'm sure CA can help with that.