Hi I'm new to this forum ,iv read lots of posts on here similar to mine and the advice and support on here is brilliant so i thought id post and hopefully some one can help me.
My husband left me feb 2011 so i started claiming tax credits,based on i worked 19 hours a week and have 3 children.
He moved into his parents and just paid board to his mum(cash)
He continued to pay mortgage,insurance,sky and council tax here instead of maintenance.
So i paid every thing else which comes with running a house 3 kids and a dog(poorly dog with heavy vets bills)
I asked and asked him to change his address and the only things he changed were hmrc for his tax and his doctors,every thing else remained the same(foolishly i know)
But our marriage had become a friendship so it was fairly amicable and i guess i just got fed up asking and i got on with running the house,working and dealing with the kids.
Now i have had the dreaded letter naming my ex as living here and asking why i did not make a joint claim 2011-2012.
I have spoken to the review lady and pleaded my case,gas and electric bills are in my name but they are key and card and so even though i buy these each month it is usually cash and so i can't prove i pay them,other bills such as tv license i can prove as that is direct debit.Basically because i would draw out a set amount each month and then pay every thing for the month with the money i can not prove i have paid these things.Im talking about gas,electric,petrol,food,bus fares, lunch monies,kids needs,maintenance of the house etc.... so even if i provide bank statements it would only show a set amount being drawn out each month and i guess in there eyes that money could be going any where even though it always paid bills, food etcshe wasn't having any of it and so said she was going to stop my money.She was saying i was financially dependant on my ex (which i disagree,if he had paid maintenance i would have paid the mortgage with it so does it matter who pays it?)Some how i managed to talk to her manager and basically his version of it was my ex was not seen to be financially linked to the alternate address i had given them for him.
And as he only paid board with cash i see their point.This financial link rule is in the claiants manual which is only available to them and not us,this is what the manager told me....hardly seems fair!
So i have to prove he hasn't been here even though financially to them i know what it looks like.
My argument is they have to provide clear guidance in the forms and leaflets that they publish for us to read and follow,so why are they allowed to have this rule and lots of other rules they can see but we can not and so we have no idea if we are following them or not?As far as i was aware i was within the criteria for a single claim,if i had been made aware that having my ex still financial linked to the property would have such dramatic affects on my claim then i would have dealt with it accordingly and so now wouldn't be in the situation where I'm having to appeal and prove i have been single.
My ex has given me his tax letters through out the year and half he has been at his mums address, i have a gp survey that was sent to him at his mums address and these are only the physical proof i have.
My ex became very depressed and was under the doctor for this and I'm so desperate should i ask him to get a copy of any medical notes that may state about our split causing his depression?
this is where i get really desperate....my ex had a vasectomy years ago, when we split i requested i be sterilised on the grounds i was now no longer with my husband and still did not want more children, i was sterilised may 2011 and I'm sure in my notes it should give my reasons for wanting the op so should i request a copy of my notes?
will tax credits accept any of these?
I totally get where tc are coming form and i actually think they have found a good way of sifting out the people that knowing make a fraudulent claim,what i disagree with is those like me that was totally un aware that having my ex linked or not linked to either address would cause me to be put in to such a gut wrenching position.
A surprising silver lining to my dark cloud is my ex has told me he did not want to deal with the split and so buried his head and this is his reason for not changing his address, because of this ordeal he has been forced to deal with this mess and he has opened up to me and now after a year and a half he wants to see if we can salvage our marriage back.So as you can imagine i am all over the place right now. And i guess this would need to be in a different thread on a different forum.
But what i need to ask is if i decide to try and work my marriage will us getting back together affect my appeal?
I have a meeting with CAB and i am also in the process of getting my MP on board, because this is money i have been entitled to and the only reason i did not know my situation could be seen as wrong is because tax credits do no freely offer all of the rules, i have followed the rules and criteria i can see but if you can't see it in black and white and you have not been told that it is there then how are you expected to follow it?
hope iv not confused any one reading this its quite hard getting all the facts in without writting an essay!
