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.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2221638/Child-benefit-cuts-heading-chaos-Reforms-complicated-taxman-explain-them.html

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.

Please can somebody help me, my wife has received a letter from HMRC asking for information as they are making an enquiry about last years tax credits claimed. My wife did not inform them of her marriage to me ( in sep 2004) and has been claiming tax credits as a single person , she is distraught and in a state knowing she has done wrong. We have contacted a solicitor and they have contacted the hmrc who said that they know that she is married and are asking about information on the award for 2011/2012. My wife is worrying that she will go to prison for this, lose her job and be shamed in the process, she knows she has been stupid. Our question is, will this investigation lead to a prison sentence, we are saying we will pay the money back and any penalties. Because they are investigating last years claim, if she gives full disclosure about being married since september 2004 will they go back and reclaim back all these past years. We have three children currently 20, 18, and 5. Please can somebody give us some good advice or information on what might happen to her.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/news/article-2225146/Cuts-child-benefit-million-families-illegal-EU-law-experts-warn.html

The government has been warned it must urgently fix flaws in its support system for successful asylum seekers, after a destitute child starved to death in temporary accommodation in Westminster. Further tragedies are increasingly likely as more asylum claims are processed while support funding dries up, organisations claim. Details of the tragic circumstances surrounding the death of ‘child EG’ and the unrelated death of his mother ‘Mrs G’ surfaced in a serious case review and a letter sent to the government by child safety experts at Westminster Council, a flagship Conservative borough. The case review found that the family had become dependent on ‘ad hoc’ charitable handouts despite a successful asylum claim because of ‘significant problems’ transferring the family from Home Office to mainstream welfare support services. Source: http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/care/child-starved-to-death-after-benefits-delay/6524052.article Very sad. A bit more: http://www.insidehousing.co.uk//6524061.article

Hi there I have a massive problem. I have received an invoice from CTC asking for £6,000 to be paid to them I ended up a single person with 2 children, however neither me or husband notified CTC that he moved out. Anyway when I did phone them and said when he moved out she never said there would be a repayment due. Now before they were notified I was getting much less money than I was entitled too because he was working. Anyway, my question is, can they ask me to repay this money because it means all the money I received I have to pay back which means I would have had no money for that period of time. Funny thing is DWP paid me a lump sum after I told them he had gone to make up for the loss so why are they asking me for money back? Ive read on here that something can be off set or something against it. Please help me I don't know what to do. How Can i defend myself?

my child who is over 18 and lives at home has just been told she need to be taken of her jsa and put on esa, by the company who she has to report to every few days as part of her jsa agrement due to mental health problems. now i clam esa myself for me and the wife who is also unable to work because of long tuem health problems and recive sevral other benifits including councal tax and housing allowance. will we be affected by this desision and lose even more money? i have had a look around but carnt find out

I am having a nightmare with the child tax credit agency. In 2010 I got married but due to a court order stopping my children from seeing my husband (long complicated story) I spoke to the child tax credit agency and they agreed that I could continue claiming as a single person. Later on that year we won a court case which allowed my husband to see my children but not to be resident at my address. The court order states that he needs to leave by 8pm every evening. I wrote to the child tax credit agency to explain this and continued to claim as a single person. In Feb 2011, my husband's son moved in to my property as he was not happy living with his mum. I put in a claim for him and after a long battle with his mother over it, I started receiving tax credit for him too. I wrote to them about this change, further outlining the situation with my husband and the need for him to live elsewhere and also had many phone conversations about where my step-son was living etc. A few months ago they decided to put me under investigation, claiming that I should have been making a joint claim with my husband all of this time. In spite of sending court orders, tenancy agreements for my husbands flat and copies of all of the letters I had sent them over the years, they have now discontinued my claim entirely and are saying I owe them £7500 in overpayments!! I do not feel I have done anything wrong as I have been 100% up front with them all the way through. If they had told me in 2010 when I got married that I would loose my benefits we would have made very different choices over the years, including probably telling my step son that he couldn't move in. We can't retrospectively change the decisions we have made since 2010! We accept their decision from now onwards but do not feel we are responsible for paying back this money as they paid it to me in full knowledge of the way we were living. It isn't even like we are deliberately living apart to get more money - we are forced to live in this way. We are currently appealing and involving our MP. Any advice would be very welcome. Thanks Jo

Hello Everyone, My 18 years old is starting full time college next week. I had no warning from the child benefit or the child tax credit the payments has stopped can someone please give me telephone number that don't start with the 0845 as it's impossible to contact them on the main 0845 number they just cut you off. Usually I get a letter to tell me if my child will still be in full time education this year I had nothing. If anyone has a telephone number for the child benefit line that I can get through I would be most grateful. Thanks very much helen

Hi all, I'm hoping someone can set me straight regarding my child tax credit entitlement. I'm fairly sure I am right in what I'm thinking though. My payments were stopped earlier in August, I had no idea why, so I rang their 'helpline' to ask. I was initially informed it was because they were late receiving the renewal form, even though it was sent back middle of July! Then later on in the conversation he told me it was because my partner had earned too much money last year, £800 over the limit of £32,200. Am I correct in thinking that the new limit only came in to force at this years' budget and the previous limit was £40,000? I also thought that tax credits were based on the previous years earnings, so in this case 2010 - 2011? I got a letter yesterday stating that there was an overpayment of nearly £7000 which they want back! £5000 of which was for 2011 - 2012 and the remaining £1700 from April this year. So, I ring them and ask how on earth can that be right. He was adamant that my partner had earned too much and we weren't entitled to it. I googled how much the limit was for 2010 - 2011 and it was £40,000 for a family with 2 children (my partner only earned the minimum wage then, his salary was £9000). I also seen an article which stated the family element of child tax credit was not affected should the salary be less than £40,000 (I don't know what the 'family element' is to be honest). They stopped paying Working Tax Credits in April as they were aware how much he earned up until then but they continued to pay the child tax credits, now they say they want this back too - I'm annoyed that they think they can do this as it was their mistake in the first place! If I'm not entitled to it from now on then that's fine but I don't see why I should pay back what I was entitled to previously. Can anyone let me know if this is right or not? Any help would be appreciated, thank you in advance x

Hi im a single parent with 3 children , ive been seperated for about 4 years although 2 years ago i tried to reconcile with my ex , which didnt work out and i was left pregant with my youngest child , Ok heres the problem ive recently recieved a letter from tax credits saying they wanted me to contact them , i did and they informed me that i would have to produce my ex partners adress , where hes been living for the last 3 years , i told them that i had no idea of his adress and they told me they would cancel my claim if i didnt produce the adress or tenency agreement for him , that was a week ago and today i find that they have stopped my payments , I went to a citizens advise and was told that tax credits would have to send an ofical letter confirming cancellation of my claim before they could stop my payments and that i should wait for letter from them . Then today they have stop my claim and no letter has arrived yet , surely they cant leave me without money especially when its not my fault and i have a small baby , please if anyone can advise me i would really greatful .

Hi I'm 16, will be 17 in the coming weeks. I was caught travelling on a child ticket on the return leg of my journey recently (TOC was First Transpennine Express), and the RPI wouldn't excess my ticket, so I had my name, address, dob, etc taken down in his notebook. He advised that I would receive a letter from the Prosecutions dept. Should I pre-emptively write to the department offering to pay the fare+admin costs or should I await the letter? Also, what region should I be looking at for the total cost with admin fee (just an estimate)? It was approx £28 for the child return, so the adult fare would have been double that. Also, what timeframe should I be awaiting a letter in? I rang the Prosecutions dept yesterday and was told it 'may take 2-3weeks' but I've seen up to 6 months on CAG? As irrelevant as it is, I did genuinely believe that 16 year olds could travel on a child ticket, but I accept it was my fault for not checking and at the first opportunity will offer my unmitigated apologies to FGW(?) for this. I was issued a Zero-Fare excess for the journey and had my ticket retained by the rpi. The reverse of the zero-fare says that the original ticket was kept due to a ticketing irregularity. I can't have a criminal record for my future career, hence why I am keen to ensure this doesn't go to court and I plan to outline this in the letter I send to FGW. Thanks for your help.

Well it says fraud in the title but apparently is not so! Many years ago my ex husband claimed Child Benefit for our youngest child, primarily to protect his HRP and to avoid being pressured to get work ( he was never fond of working and would try always to "play" the system) Long story short, he was not a good person and eventually left early in 2007. I am 99 % certain that I contacted CHB when he left to have the youngest child added to my claim ( along with 2 older children that I had always claimed for in my name) The problem is, I am sure I contacted them via email, which was work email, at a previous employer that I can no longer access. Letters from CHB over the intervening years have arrived, always with a total amount showing, and wording to the effect of "it has not been possible to show how the total is made up" so no breakdown by child, and in my naivety I assumed this was correct amount for all 3 children. It has come to light today that I have received no Child Benefit for youngest in all this time, but my ex has, and is still receiving it. At no time has he had contact, or any kind of shared or sole care, in fact he has served a prison sentence for offences against this child, and I have a residence order in my favour - for obvious reasons. So of course I'm kicking myself, for a) not using personal email and b) not noticing earlier... Speaking to Child Benefit today, all I can do is make a claim from now for youngest, and as I wasn't claiming the Child Benefit, he has not committed fraud???? After he left, I was working and in receipt of Child Tax Credit , including the youngest child, and I'm baffled that the discrepancy wasn't noticed then, but it seems as though there is no inter-agency communication, despite both being HMRC... He has never paid any maintenance or made any financial contribution to any of the children, although the Child Benefit advisor today tried to imply that as a non resident parent he could claim CHB as the child would still benefit from his financial contributions! Ideal world, I would get the money back, he would be prosecuted for fraud . Realistically no way that either of those things are going to happen No point trying any other way to make him repay, as he doesn't, never has and never will work. Any advice welcome, I know it stinks morally, but do I have any legal recourse at all?

Hi Everyone I would greatly appreciate some help and advice. Two weeks ago I returned my Child Tax Credit form thinking everything was OK. I get my credit paid in to my bank every Friday. This morning I logged in and my Child Tax Credit had not been paid. I phoned the help line straight away and they told me the reason they stopped my money was because my circumstances have changed. When I told him nothing has changed he said your annual income has gone from £6,400 to £64,000 a year. I realized the mistake I made, I put the numbers in the wrong boxes on the form. I explained this to him so he amended the form. I asked him how long it would take before I get the money but he could not give me a date. I rely on this money each week to pay for petrol, food, gas and electric. I only work 16hrs a week and get paid monthly, I have to wait another week for my wages . Has this every happened to anyone else and if you how long did it take before you got your tax credit again? Many thanks in advance Caroline

Hi guys My misses had our soon 1st may 2012, when we got home we didnt fill out the tax credit form for about a week with a lot of guests, people coming to see us all the time. We sent it off about 2 weeks ago and received 2 payments of £151.00 my misses ticked the box paid weekly so im guessing this is what we get for a week, reason we get this much is because i am currently unemployed after being made redundant from the bbc after working for them for 6 years, I am also on income support. Just wondering would this 2 weeks be a back date of when we sent off the form ? Also what day do they pay tax credit ? is it a friday