income support child maintenance disregard from april 2010
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cabsy83
Posts: 123 Forumite
Hi,
I've read on here and on a few other sites that after 12 april 2010 any money paid for child maintenance will be disregarded in the calculation of income support. I though fab because that'll make me £58 a week better off! Then earlier this month I received a letter saying that as of the 13th april my income support will be going up from £5.85...to £6.99 a week, and the calculation was still being done only using a £20 maintenance disregard. So now I'm confused, does that mean that there's not going to be a full disregard now? My ex pays maintenance through a private arrangement, does that affect it? Also I have no other income other than tax credits so there's nothing else which could be affecting it!
Any ideas or advice gratefully received!
I've read on here and on a few other sites that after 12 april 2010 any money paid for child maintenance will be disregarded in the calculation of income support. I though fab because that'll make me £58 a week better off! Then earlier this month I received a letter saying that as of the 13th april my income support will be going up from £5.85...to £6.99 a week, and the calculation was still being done only using a £20 maintenance disregard. So now I'm confused, does that mean that there's not going to be a full disregard now? My ex pays maintenance through a private arrangement, does that affect it? Also I have no other income other than tax credits so there's nothing else which could be affecting it!
Any ideas or advice gratefully received!
Trying to fix my finances whilst living with 3 kids and 2 cats! 👩🏻👧🏻👦🏻👶🏼🐱🐱
January Grocery Challenge (starting 31/12) £0/£350
January Grocery Challenge (starting 31/12) £0/£350
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Comments
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could this be due to the yearly increase in benefits ?Paul Walker , in my dreams;)0
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Yes, that's why there was an increase, I was really just wondering why there had only been a £20 disregard applied and not a full disregard!Trying to fix my finances whilst living with 3 kids and 2 cats! 👩🏻👧🏻👦🏻👶🏼🐱🐱
January Grocery Challenge (starting 31/12) £0/£3500 -
Knowing what little I know about the HMRC and benefits letters, you'll probably receive a seperate letter telling you about the change in maintenance disregard. I imagine the increase letter was sent to everyone, then they'll send another one to only those affected by the change. I seem to have received a seperate letter for everything child tax credits related, when one envelope and stamp would have sufficed :insert shrug smilie here:
It's only a game
~*~*~ We're only here to dream ~*~*~0 -
Child maintenance is going to be fully disregarded from April. Perhaps the legislation needed has not yet been passed through Parliament, hence why your benefit update notification letter still shows a £20 disregard.
See:
http://www.childmaintenance.org/en/childsupport/index.html0 -
i should recieve over 500 pounds in maintenance payments for 3 kids. will i still recieve full income support0
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Speaking as a claimant of Income Support (IS) & a parent-with-care, I only learned about these changes yesterday & personally, I have NEVER had any letter from the CSA or the DWP about benefit disregards, not when the £10 one was first implemented, nor when the disregard was increased to £20 in 2008.
However, the CSA have just confirmed to me that the new full disregard only came into force on 21st April 2010. This would explain why it didn't get applied to DWP calculations that related to the first 3 weeks of that month.
(Actually though Cabsy, it didn't matter that it only said £20, or if it had said £200 or even £2,000 - the Income Support total would still be the same, because a 'disregard' isn't ever counted into the maths of those DWP breakdown letters!)
(& yes, Lynette, it seems from Robbie's link here that you will still get the IS too.)
I gather the purpose of this move is to help overcome the crippling penalties that has caused many of us lone parents to be financially worse-off if we dared to find ourselves jobs. Since those penalties forced very many families into the poverty trap for decades, I'm utterly amazed that the bureaucracy has finally made an effort to acknowledge the problem at last!!
Sadly though, the poorest will remain poor, because where the absent-parents are also on low incomes too, the weekly amounts of Child Support they must pay can be below £20, so that these changes will make no difference to those families at all!
Usual winners-&-losers situation from another government policy then....(& feel free to call me cynical!!)0 -
Its true that all maintenance is now disrgarded for children from week commencing 12th April. There is no longer the £20 disregard, its all disregarded in full.
Ask for a benefit breakdown letter and double check, if its not on there then I would be suprised as the system would be flagging up error messages and reminders all over the place.0
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