Hello, all, I'm asking for a good friend who doesn't have internet access. Due to a series of misfortunes (she is a decent person who works hard) my friend got into debt. Her young child is disabled and they have recently been awarded DLA. As the DLA has been awarded for the child, I thought that dcas have no right to make a claim (almost wrote 'clam' - Freudian thinking? ) on the DLA. That she can offer token payments as other than the DLA she is skint. I've also told her that if any of them come knocking not to answer the door, as only the postman and someone asking for directions are allowed on her property. Many thanks for any assistance. Cheers, Rhys

Apologies if I get mixed up but im in a bit of a panic with a letter I received yesterday and am worried about what to do, basically the HMRC have sent me a letter asking for me to repay an overpayment of child tax credits which were paid whilst I was married 8 years ago!!. My then wife claimed for my two step children, and a letter has been sent asking me to payback £1300 approximately, it says that this can be paid back over 12 months!!. 8 years ago I was in full time employment as a Staff nurse and now and for the past 5 years I have been on incapacity benefit and now ESA due to a long period of ill health and not been able to work, I have no hope of paying 1300 back in twelve months, never mind 24 months as I only get £90 a week to live on. I haven't phoned them yet as i'm scared of doing so. apparently the debt is for an overpayment they made ( which if memory serves the did to many folks at that period due to an admin error ), it was 8 years ago, we only claimed tax credits for 11 months the length of our marriage, thanks will they accept a payment in line with what i get each week ie, £5 or so as I have no spare cash as it is.

Hi, i would like to fill you in on what happened 15 years ago. Our 17 month old daughter was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma cancer, we were informed she had a 5% chance of survival . We went to see the manager at Lloyds TSB to inform them of our circumstances and to ask that no phone calls were to be made to us; all correspondence was to be in writing. The bank ignored our request and rang us on numerous occasions and just 5 minutes after finding out our daughter had only a week to live; Sadly she passed on at 21 months old. The bank carried on ringing and demanding payments ( we have the letter from 15 years ago from the bank admitting this ). We feel that all the payments made so far were under distress. There have been 5 different collection agencies contacting us, each one we have had to explain our situation again which distressed us more. We have been asking Lloyds TSB for the past 10 years for the original agreement, Westcott took over the collection in November 2012 and we stated that we did not nor ever owed them the money that they requested and that all payments were under duress. We requested the original documents once again, Westcott replied that their client Lloyds TSB doesn't have any documents or copies Westcott sent us a letter saying that as far as they were concerned the matter was finished and that we must continue paying. On the 20th of November we replied stating they had no right to request money without the original agreements and as far as we were concerned the matter was still in dispute until Lloyds TSB contacted us; Still awaiting a reply. We received a letter from Morecroft collection agency in June 2013 stating that their client had registered a default against my Credit score without any warning. We contacted the ombudsman as Lloyds TSB refused to discuss the whole matter; The Ombudsman then contacted Lloyds and told them they must resolve all issues. Lloyds TSB phoned up i have asked for no more phone calls and to have all correspondence in writing, it is very difficult to discuss the matter to every different person that rings as it is very distressful for me and my partner. They decided to ring up today ignoring all my requests yet again, I asked to speak to a manager; she then insisted that she was the manager. When i asked to speak to somebody higher than herself she wanted to know exactly why; i had to go through all the stress of explaining what happened 15 years ago. I then asked to speak to her superior as i had no confidence with her dealing with my complaint. She refused to let me speak to anybody higher than herself. I contacted the Ombudsman to inform them of Lloyds TSB were refusing me contact with the manager; Can the bank refuse me access to their superior ? Can they put my default on my credit record while under dispute and without a true copy of the original agreement ? How do i obtain any information they hold on me/my account ? I originally opened up a complaint in 1998 about the way i was treated, I had to deadlock the complaint due to the mental distress it was causing me. The ombudsman awarded me £250 which i refused as the complaint was not complete. Please advise me on what to do

Sorry if im in the wrong forum, I searched but was not sure were to post, so thought best here as it local authority. I took my children out of school on Wednesday, to go and visit a very close immediate family member recovering from cancer! I did give the school a letter (the school are doing a trial run over the new law about unauthorised school leaves for days and holidays) so i completed the form as requested and gave it the Tuesday as I was told to hand it in then. Wednesday comes and we are on a long public transport journey to see the family member, when at 12.00,we get a call to cancel as they had took a turn, and were not feeling to well so said to arrange another day. I okied this, but was gutted as we had spent 4 hours already on the train, so decided to make the most of the day and go walking around the area we were at. We wondered round the area a bit, and purchased a new vehicle we had no intention of doing this but it was a good offer and decided why not. (daft but was cheap and we needed one, have another thread on here about a vehicle we just returned). On Friday (Thursday school closed due to strike, only got a weeks notice!) one of my children said that the head teacher and there teacher questioned as to why they took a school day off, to go on a day trip when they should be learning. My child said a letter was handed in and told them what had happened, the teacher then said that they never got he letter, but i do know they did as I personally handed it to them. What i don't like is they question my child who is 8 years old but is being looked into for development delay problems and so far being assessed as a child with the mental age of a 4-5 year old, so he does not remember things very well, so even though he knew we were going to see this family member he didn't mention the events that happened. I am angry about this as the school know about my childs problem and knew what we were doing as I had spoke to them about it everyday so they were aware! I feel they have over stepped the line to make us out to be liars, I have never allowed my children to stay off unless ill, we have never had a holiday during school term they have very good attendance marks as well.

I am paying CSA around £430 a month out of my wages to my son from a previous relationship. He is now 17 and I dont have any contact with him. He has displayed on social networking sites that he is working and flashing his cash. Friends of mine who speak and know him have also told me this information. I have reported it to the CSA and have been told that because his Mum is claiming child benefit I still have to pay. Any ideas on what to do?

Hi everyone, hoping for some preemptive advice. My 15 year old son is Autistic, Dyspraxic with associated conditions. He has been in receipt of DLA HRC and LRM for 10 years. We have received the new adult form as he turns 16 in August. I have original dx letters and reports from 2008 (no reports since, but he still has OT and S&LT weekly, within his special school as set out in his SEN and also outside of school.), and letters from the school sen nurse, his OT and hopefully, the S&LT. He has a current Statement which outlines his difficulties and is in depth. Our GP is aware of his condition and care needs and will respond stating these, if asked. My son is very bright educationally, he has an amazing vocab and has self taught guitar and drums. It's his social skills, sense of danger, road sense and poor sleeping pattern that set him apart from his peers. He cannot leave the house independently (and indeed prefers not to go out at all) and still needs help with many things, due to poor fine motor control. I have to cut his food, tie laces and wash his hair etc. I have filled in the form very thoroughly, despite not being familiar with the adult form and I am asking to be his appointee due to him not having any idea about money, and also not being able to write adequately to fill in forms etc. He is happy for me to continue doing this when he turns 16. I also have a letter from the OT confirming his lack of knowledge regarding these areas. My main worry is that with all of the changes, his claim will be refused. It's not so much the loss of the extra money that worries me, rather, what will happen to him if they decide he is no longer eligible? If I am no longer receiving a carer's allowance, I will have no choice but to find work (his father is deceased.) and I am so scared for his safety if that happens. Just because they may decide he does not need that supervision, it will not mean that he actually doesn't. What if he leaves the house and gets hit by a car, gets lost, or gets bullied etc? I am literally terrified. He is due to leave his special school this year and start at college with learning support in September. The college is 4 miles from our house and he has to travel across the city to get there. I have already decided that I would of course appeal, and that has made me feel a little better, but I just had another worry pop up.. Would I be able to appeal at the tribunal on his behalf or would they expect him to do it? He just wouldn't be able to cope in that setting. I hadn't even considered that, so now i'm unsure if an appeal would even be an option. Does anyone have any advice for me please?

Hello, I would be very appreciative for any help or direction into a recent debt I've just received. Last Thursday I had a letter from 'advantis' regarding a debt to HMRC for £8347 of which I have no previous correspondence or information. After I picked myself up off the floor I rang the company immediately and was basically told I had over-payments totaling the amount above from 2004. I asked them to allow me time to contact HMRC and see if this is a mistake and I would obviously call them back. Firstly, I'm long term unemployed with no savings currently living at fathers until I can find new accommodation. I have no assets and had to sell my previous home due to debts (cleared) after divorce. I am contacting the HMRC Mon morning to start an appeal process (If that's possible) and pray they have made some kind of mistake. I will also make an apt with the local CAB so I can actually talk face to face with someone or maybe approach a Solicitor. Whilst this process begins I would appreciate and welcome any advice you could suggest, I'm extremely worried the DCA will try to levy my debt against my fathers home just because I'm living there? If the debt stands what help can I get managing it ? Thank you for your time and any assistance you can offer.

hi everyone, I will try to explain my situation as simple as I can, apologise if the story is too long... first, a year and a half ago I moved home and forgot to tell hmrc straight away, I was remindeed by the tx credits renewal packs that were sent out to my friends and gave them a call straight away and explained the situation. At the time the advisor was very understanding and we did the changes over the phone. I asked her if I needed to call child benefit as well and she told me NO, records would be updated for both offices. Since then I have been getting letters from hmrc normally, child tax credits and child trust fund as well. I never thought to doubt for a moment that all was all right. However, last month I accidntally noticed my child benefit payments had stopped. I rarely go out looking for the payments unless there is a problem, have all my bills on direct debit etc, so pay little attention to my bank statement. turns out the last payment was on the 29th of may 2012. I first contacted the office online as getting through the phone was taking ages. Few days later I got an email from them telling me my payments had been stopped due to a letter that I did not respond to and Id have to start a new claim. not happy with that short response I emailed back but never got any more contact. so yesterday I called the office. the advisor asked for my details to confirm my identity, there and then he assured me he had my correct address in hands, the present one. So I briefly told him my story, he kept in silence as I talked and when I finished only told me "well there is nothing else you can do apart from starting a new claim". I asked to be informed of when they sent me any correspondence as for what i can see they have my correct adress so it all sounds like a mistake to me. he said he cant tell me when because the letter could have been sent from any hmrc office, to wich i replied thats impossible, I had ust gotten ff thephone with tax credits office to make sure all was right there. he told me many things could have happened including a mistake from the post man. I said "what????" he said, yes, you never know the postman could have dropped your letters in another house, I said then how does that make the whole thing my fault? and how many letter were sent out until ending on my benefit being stopped that the postman delivered wrong? The advisor kept telling me in a ery rude mannner that hes wasnt saying it was no one fault but that there was nothing else he could do, trying to get me off the phone. I insisted for an explanation though. I asked him for a bit of understanding from his side to my question... how is it if they have my present adress my benefit could have been stopped over lack of response from my part???? if I never got any letters from them? he advisors, shckingly, asked me how did I know I did not ge any letters? I said to him he must have been joking there, because, obviously, I live in this house and get all the letter, and there wasnt one from child benefits. He went on to say about postman mistake and taht perhaps the offices were late on communicating the address change between them but there was no way we could know what happened. i asked further questions, like, if the office does not keep records of all mail sent out or when the address change in his system took place, that sure would have been recorded, to all he replied he did not know the information and few times told me "i dont understand what you want from me". Leaving aside the poor tratment I got over the phone yesterday, I also did not get an answer to my problem. I told him I believe my payments shoud be backdated to when they stopped because this was clearly a "postman mistake" or miscommunication within the department, wich is a bit strange since at the end of the day, they were communicated of my new address and got all my information correctly. Overall, I told him, there is no explanation or reason of why my payments woud have been stopped, and he could not tell me more than I did not reply to mail sent out to me. wich I believe is no good enough excuse, since they have my present address and sure would have taken more than one lettter missed for the to stop it all together, so its also hard to believe the "postman mistake" theory. after about half an hour on the phone with the man, I told him I would not get off the phone until he would give me more than "nothing else I can do", because I cant accept this type of treatment and unfair decision, he told me in a very spiteful manner he had already told me wha to do minutes ago, wich he had not, and he would pass my complaint to head office. I was shocked, never before I had seen such rudeness and lack of empathy from a HMRC advisor on the phone, any other call I had made before was spotlessly dealt with and politeness and professionalism always there, not to fault!!! I do not know what to do next and how to act. Another hour call like that and another advisor playing like that to me on the phone, its very frustrating any help will be very much appreciated!!

Can anyone point me to the government literature where it says you can claim CTC for a child educated abroad if the child returns to the UK in the summer holidays. Thanks.

My son carries dual US/UK citizenship however he is not allowed to enter theUS on his UK passport. My son's US passport has expired; he has spentevery summer of his life since birth in the US. He is now 10. His father &I are divorced but the custody issue was not dealt with in the divorce. In order to get my son's US passport renewed both parents have to attend theUS embassy in person with the child. I asked my son's father back in January 2013,to go with my son & I to apply for the passport, he did not & has not responded. US rules state as follows; Important Notice: the written consent from the non-applying parent that accompanies an application for a new passport must be less than 3 months old. If not available, you will be required to furnish evidence of the appearing parent's sole authority to apply for the passport in the form of one of the following: Consular Report of Birth Abroad (Form FS-240) or Certification of Birth Abroad (Form DS-1350) listing only applying parent; Child's birth certificate listing only applicant parent; Adoption decree (if applying parent is sole adopting parent); Court Order granting sole custody to the applying parent (i.e the absent parent has no access to the child. Child's travel must not be restricted by that order; Judicial declaration of incompetence of non-applying parent; or Death certificate of non-applying parent Can someone please advise me if the court can force my ex to go to theembassy with my son & I or can I can secure sole custody? My son requiresthe passport by Early July 2013. Can I make an application for a Special Issue Order to get my ex to goto the embassy? I cannot afford to engage a solicitor. I'd be gratefulfor any advice. Thanks

Hi, my daughter (19, and at college) moved out last Tuesday - I started to notify everyone today (emailed Child Benefit & Local Council & tried unsuccessfully to get through the Tax Credits). Whilst doing my 'domestic admin' I noticed on my online bank account that CB had gone in on the 4th but for 3 Weeks and not 4 weeks amount. I work fulltime so don't claim housing or anything like that. Just seems odd re the underpayment, I only emailed them today to advise that she moved out on the 5th. Is it possible that my daughter has claimed something in her own right and told them before me? (she was still coming home up until Tuesday albeit usual coming home late etc) Worried about this aswell as her as she seems to have gone a bit 'off the rails' lately and is very secrective (feels like I am the enemy)

i Dont know if anyone can help here. I have been searching the internet but cannot find any answer. our son recently died and im having a hard time finding the account provider of his CTF to close the account. We never used the voucher ourselves and we did recieve a letter stating that the £250 had been automatically put into an account by the government but we cannot find this letter anywhere. There is a helpline number that is now closed that says to go to the GOV website but there is no help on there whatsoever. Has anyone else ever had this problem and recovered the account? thanks in advance

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/39367 Child Support Agency overhaul needed for sake of children and non-resident parents Responsible department: Department for Work and Pensions The current legislation for the CSA doesn't allow for living costs of the non resident parent. I've argued this point many times over the phone with the CSA who are not interested in the devastating consequences this can have for the children or as in most cases, the father as a result of this shockingly awful government agency. This agency needs a serious overhaul and needs to put children first. That means a fair assessment of the non-resident parents income to include living costs. At the very least I would expect the government to make special allowances for low income earners, to include specifically ignoring any overtime worked, as in most cases overtime is needed to make ends meet anyway. And the government needs to involve and get the ideas of non-resident parents in this overhaul, as they are the ones suffering with the way things are currently done.

Hello, I am writing here for some advice on behalf of my sister who is struggling financially. She is employed through her ex partner's company and receives £2000 per month. She is separated from her ex and is the primary carer for their 7 year old daughter. The mortgage is £1300 per month and so once bills and council tax are also taken off, she has approx £200 month left for food. She is getting into big debt. When they first separated, she applied for Child tax credits stating that she was earning £24000 per annum (she timesed £2000 x 12 months). However, she was concerned that she wasn't filling out the form correctly as she didn't know if this was in the form of dividends, whether it was a gross or net wage, and so she asked her ex's accountants to fill out the form for her. They put down that her gross annual salary was combined of a personal allowance of £7000 and dividends worth £31000 which meant that she had to repay the previous years allowance and is scared of contacting them again, even though she is on the breadline. Ultimately, is she entitled to Child Tax credits? Many thanks for any advice.

4 Months ago, my wife and I split. I had been subject to years and financial, emotional and physical abuse, so my head wasn't in the best place, I wasnt aware of what benifits etc were being claimed , I had a budget given to me of £5 per week and that was it as far I knew anything about money, I worked and earned good money but never saw it, my ex didnt work and controlled everything. One of our children elected to come and live with me at the time of the split. My ex wife , then started throwing loads of disgusting ( and proven , false) allegations around , further adding to the pressure I was under. When we left, we were not permitted to take anything with us, we had to start all over again. In Nov, 3 weeks after the split, once I had started to get us both back on our feet, I submitted a claim for Child Benefit and child tax. Last week I received a letter saying that my ex had not informed HMRC of a change and had still been claiming for Child Benifit from Oct until dec 24th, for the child that was no longer living with her. I asked if there was a way I can claim this money back, as I had to buy a whole new wardrobe for our child (no goods have been returned to date and probs would no longer fit anyway) and I had been feeding etc our child since Oct but HMRC didn't seem too bothered about this and said because my ex didnt tell them , it was tough, isnt this benefit fraud ? not declaring a change ? I have police/solicitors/cafcass reports all detailing that we both left in Oct, is there anyway I can claim the Child Benefit for the child that lived me since Oct or does my ex get to keep it all because she didnt tell them ? I assume Child Tax will be the same but I have not yet heard from them, Thanks Ppl.

the mother of my unborn daughter has insisted that she wants no child support from me. to cut a long story short, i am what you would call a sperm donor. is it possible to get a legally binding contract stating this? my biggest concern is not giving any child support as agreed with her, only to get a letter from the CSA if she changes her mind. Bruce

my son aged 17 left college for no good reason last november, how long can child benefit be claimed after the date he left and should they be informed straight away?

Hello, apologies if I'm posting in the wrong place This morning my bank took 88.00 out of my 102.00 child tax credits. Can they do this? I know at least 2 of these 8.00 charges are for my loan payment to them which was arranged over the phone to go out on a Saturday as that's when money goes in. They agreed this on the phone and then we noticed it was attempting to go out on Fridays. I rang them again and they said they "didn't do Saturdays" so had made it Friday instead. Which was useless as I had explained on the phone, Saturday is the only day i have guaranteed money. So we arranged for it to go out on Mondays, as by Friday the account is usually empty. I now have 20.00 for food/electric over xmas, never mind the fact they will attempt to take their 25.00 loan payment on Monday... Thanks for any help!

I have been looking after my 16 month old grandson for 7 months due to my daughter having housing issues and the Social Services placed him officially into my care. I have been reciving child TC since July but they sent me and my daughter a form in october asking who should carry on receiving them - my daughter completed her's but I put mine in a drawer until after a social services meeting to see if they were letting my daughte rhave the baby back as she wanted - and when. They decided she could have him back just before christmas this year then my TC stopped for grandson - when I rang they said it was because I never sent the form in and I should appeal I then found the form, completed it and got a letter from social worker to support that I have had my grandson since july (the HMRC also say I owe them the TC from July as I never had my GS living with me) I explained that I never had time to appeal as my GS would be going back to his mother in a couple of weeks, aslo I have not had a letter from them confirming this decision I now have had 3 weeks with no TC and my husband only received pension credit and I still ahve to buy my GS clothes, nappies, food and take him weekends to his mum Is there anything i can do to reverse this stupid decision - just by forgetting to complete a form, the government now has my GS money that he is entitled to?

Hi, I phoned the Child tax helpline today to make the following changes to my claim, Childcare costs to be reduced to nil as no longer paying childcare Change address I was told that I couldn't make the changes as the system wouldn't allow them to as my claim had been passed to another team as a letter had been sent out to me. I didn't receive the letter and we are due to move house tomorrow which is why I was calling to update my claim. They gave me a number which I called and they are checking my childcare payments. I have to admit I stopped paying childcare at the beginning of September, but didn't tell them until I called today and spoke to the compliance team. I am really worried as I have read on the internet that you can go to jail for overpayments, is this true? I have never done this before and I have certainly learn't my lesson. The person I spoke to was really nice and just said that I must keep them informed. She also phoned the previous childcare provider who confirmed that I paid up to the end of Sept,but I am still nervous. Has anyone been in a similar situation. Thanks

A friend has 7 year old twins. One of them is deaf and wears hearing aids. The children in his class are pulling them out and breaking them. He can't hear without them. She's spoken to his teacher who has said "we can't watch 35 children at the same." His aids have been sent off to get fixed and he has nothing in the meantime. He will struggle in the meantime. He's not profoundly deaf and receives little / no help and won't receive help whilst the aids are being fixed. The teacher replied that as children who are in year 2, (6 & 7 year olds) they should be taking responsibility for themselves. School claim he doesn't have a problem as he lip reads. She's rung the school and is hoping to speak to the head later. What are her options, please? He can't reach his full potential because the other children are pulling out his hearing aids, meaning he can't hear properly. I have told her to mention the Equalities Act - he can't reach his potential due to the lack of support.

Hi My girlfriend and I have been separated for approx. 3 years. I left the family home and have been living with a friend since. During that time she has been claiming child tax credit and is claiming is as a single parent. She received a letter the other day from the tax office saying that they have evidence that suggests that I am still living with her and why is she not claiming as a couple. Also, threatening all sorts of action. The problem is that since I moved out I have not changed any of my details over to my new address. The house where my ex lives is legally mine but I let her stay there as she was looking after our son. We also have a decent relationship so I always pick up my mail from there when I go to see my son. I still pay the mortgage, and some bills. However, I have nothing to say that I have been living with my friend during this time, only mine and his word for it. As she uses tokens for her utilities, we didn't even change the name on the elec/gas bills etc so its all still in my name. My ex is frantic with worry now as they are talking about fines and even worse. Any advice would be most welcome. Thanks Craig

hi everyone, i have a question about child tax credits. from what i can see on the internet, a family can be abroad for upto 8 weeks and continue to receive child tax credits. my question is this: is that eight weeks per tax year, or is it eight weeks per trip. i.e. if they timed it near the end of one tax year, could they be abroad for upto 16 weeks in one go (by making their single trip abroad overlap two tax years) and still continue to get child tax credits payments for 16 weeks? thanks for that

Complicated situation. A relative of mine has a sick neonate. Baby needs to travel to London for a liver biopsy and the hospital have told them they must arrange transport. They don't have a car. Baby is not currently an inpatient but is going into hospital for tests and check ups daily, he was in neonatal intensive care for 3 weeks after his birth and has only been home a week or so. The boyfriend works at a fast food restaurant but is off because of the baby being poorly and is not entitled to sick pay there so they are living on child tax credits, working tax credits and child benefit. They have a 3yo as well as the neonate. Are they entitled to any help with transport to London? Seems amazing that they can be expected to take public transport with a poorly baby, plus atm they don't have a clue how they can afford the trip as there are no wages coming in. Also, as the boyfriend is not working and is not entitled to sick pay or anything (he's not ill) is there anything else they can claim in the meantime? They hope he will be off work only briefly but he needs to support the family right now and he is very worried about the neonate obviously. Any help and advice appreciated.

My son turns 19 in January and is enrolled and accepted onto a 16hr full time course for g.c.s.e equivalent english, maths and ict. This is a special college for young people of the autistic spectrum, emotional and behavior issues, adhd, ocd and so on. My son starts his college on 4th march 2013. I spoke to 3 child benefit officers because i need to claim before his 19th birthday. But all i got from them is that i am not entitled to child benefit as he is not on a full time course now. I did explain that a claim needs putting in now but they said refused. Then they changed what they were saying and telling me that he needed to be in continued education, but the hmrc website tells me completely different. Here is a quote from their site regarding young people going back into education after a break: Your child goes back into education or training Your child might go back to education or start a training course after a break - for example after a period of unemployment. As long as the education or training counts for Child Benefit, you'll usually be able to get Child Benefit for them. You'll need to make another claim if your Child Benefit had previously stopped because you no longer qualified for it. Your child needs to have started, enrolled or been accepted onto a course that counts for Child Benefit before their 19th birthday for you to qualify. The quote in purple is what i based my claim on, but for some reason they keep disregarding what i was saying. Maybe there is something i had missed? They tell me that he cannot and will not be accepted onto the system and either way i will not qualify for child benefit. Some advice on what to do would be great, i feel im going crazy right now because child tax credit has accepted us.