Hi. My 15y old child is banned from an M&S store for swearing at a member of staff. Is the company allowed to throw us out of the store 6 months later when I decide to go in there together with my child to buy clothes? Thank you

My daughter is 17, almost 18 (November 2015).....When she started her 6th form years in 2014, ie years 12/13, I guess, she started at college but due to ill health she had to leave. She is on her way to recovery and has with any luck been given the opportunity to do an apprenticeship at a shop near where we live. Does she qualify for Child Benefit and Child Tax Credit? The Child Benefit and Child Tax Credit ended some time ago, as she was not in education, not by choice, but that didn't seem to matter. She gets PIP for herself, which I take no money from her, as thats for her condition....The problem is, I get ESA and DLA for myself and no money for her. so my benefit for one person is now split into 2, for myself and my daughter and has been for some time now. Do only "some" apprenticeships warrant Child Benefit and/or Child Tax Credit? Or do apprenticeships not count as education? ( I know you need to be in receipt of child benefit to get child tax credit) but I don't really know what to do. I'm hit by the bedroom tax, £15.55 pw, I have to pay £72pw towards my care, I just wondered if there was any shimmering light of hope at the end of a tunnel, where I might get some help? Anyone got any ideas?

Hi Looking for some advice for a friend. Mother earns £60,000 per year and father around £30,000. 2 children. Now parents going through divorce. Can father who has joint custody now claim child benefit and tax credits as he below the threshold for both benefits. Thanks

I've just read a letter addressed to my partner. unknown to me, she has had a single person claim ongoing despite us moving in together in May 2012. she has been overpaid by over £8000 and we are more than worried by this. I have asked why this hadn't been sorted, she couldn't really say, besides arguing wont solve this. according to calculators the amount of tax credits we WOULD have had is very close to what she has received. She is naive with money I believe and has buried her head somewhat to this , now we're up the creek so to speak. I don't believe her intentions were fraudulent or deliberate more silly. however I have told her she needs to get on the phone and sort this out tomorrow. some information about our household: Living as a couple since may 2012 Parents to two children whom live at our address our income from May 2012 - July 2015 was as follows: Income support - £160 odd fortnightly (for both) Child Benefit - £34 per week Carers allowance ( paid to myself looking after a relative ) - £62 per week. Child Tax Credit ( claimed as a single person ) - £117 per week appx: £1170 per month. I have read about a potential for offsetting the overpayment against the correct claim amounts had it been done. which would likely drop this overpayment bill to below £500. I am trying to sort this out as I have just started a new full time job and want everything to be above board. £8000+ of tax debt will cripple us a family. I fully accept this is a significant mistake on our behalf and had I known , I would have acted sooner. any advice would be greatly appreciated. many thanks.

Child Identity Theft – How Safe is Your Child’s Identity ID theft is not just limited to adults. Children are just as much at risk of having their identity stolen. Unfortunately theft of a child’s identity can go undetected for years, which is why children can be a tempting target for identity thieves. In America, the Federal Trade Commission found children make up the fastest growing segment of identity theft victims.* The UK does not experience this crime to the same degree as our personal data is protected by the Data Protection Act 1998, however with the rise of social media children are increasingly susceptible in cyberspace. What is child identity theft? Child identity theft occurs when an identity thief steals a child’s personal details to commit fraud and other types of crimes. It is easy for criminals to set up new accounts as children tend to have clean credit records. This type of identity theft is not usually reported because parents have no suspicion their child’s identity has been taken let alone the child themselves which allows the criminal to use the information for many years. How do I know if my child’s identity has been compromised? Your child gets a bill for something they haven’t ordered. They get emails from an organisation they don’t recognise. They receive letters regarding government benefits or tax payments. They begin receiving credit applications and credit card and bank offers under his or her name. Your application to open a bank account for your child is denied due to poor credit history. What can my child do to protect him/herself when going online? Make sure you teach your child about privacy and that they aware of the information they must not reveal, such as name, address, phone number or school. Be careful of what they share online and with whom. Ensure they don’t accept friend requests from strangers on popular sites like Facebook and Twitter. If your child goes on chatrooms encourage them to stay anonymous as they may find themselves to talking to people they don’t know. What can I do to protect my child’s identity online? Check the privacy settings on any online social networking sites your child’s is signed up to and don’t forget to also check the device settings on smartphones or tablets that they may use. Monitor what information is being shared and made public through simply checking search engines for your child’s name. Be vigilant and monitor their social media and chatroom use, such as only allowing them to use it your presence and looking over the chat room before your child joins it. Block pop ups, to prevent your child being tempted to click on them and potentially release malicious software. If your child’s identity has been stolen they must change their passwords to any online sites immediately as well as any security questions. If they have become a victim of fraud report it to Action Fraud. http://www.blog.noddle.co.uk/child-identity-theft-how-safe-is-your-childs-identity/?utm_campaign=Noddle+Newsletter+100815&utm_source=emailCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=

Hi i have had a similar experience with a child minder She took me via MCOL to a county court over a debt the claim was struck out but now she has instructed bailiffs.(correction -a dca - DX) What I need to know is if the claim was struck out how come she can instruct bailiffs , has she broken any laws in doing so and can i now counter claim?

Hi, It’s been nearly five years since we asked PayPlan to help us with our debt difficulties. And In that time our debt has gone from nearly £29,000 down to just £5,000. We are paying £340 per month. Now, the child benefits/Tax we have been receiving will be reduced with our eldest finishing college. There will be a loss of about £65 per week, but we don’t expect to regain the full amount from our son due to his indecisiveness about his future. With our reveiw due in August, we are unsure what to say about the his income. Would the creditors expect an income figure for him? or just a token board and lodge amount? The debts in question have nothing to do with him. To date he is still looking, but nothing yet. Hope this is clear.

wife had to phone inland revenue today as they cancelled our oldest childs, child benefit thinking that she would be finishing college this term. my wife sorted that out as she is on her 3rd year this coming term , then the woman said ,that we havent been claiming child tax for her for 2 years ,i thought something was wrong around two years ago but then my health got alot worse and it was forgotton about. the woman said that she has passed it on and we should get it back dated 12 months . are we better off phoning ourselves ,no idea who we phone tbh . and confirming this . would be nice to get it backdated the full 2 years but i very much doubt that will happen . also any ideas as to how much it is per child a week . we are on benefit and i get esa .

Hi all, I hope anyone can advise me what to do please. I receive child tax credit and child benefit for my 18 year old daughter as she attends college. I was sent a letter from child tax credits asking me to send them proof that my daughter was still attending college. All well enough I thought. ,until my daughter dropped the bomb shell that she hasn't been attending college since October 2014, she'd been leaving the house and going over to her friends 3days a week instead of college, all this without me knowing. I had asked her to get proof for college attendance nearly 3 weeks ago and she said she was waiting for the tutor to sign the proof. So tonight I reminded her the deadline to receive proof was coming up 31st May, for her to break down and tell me the whole lie she's been doing. I am really stressed and panacing at the minute, I can't believe she has been doing this for all this time and I haven't known . What can anyone advise me to do here! My heads mashed up! I'm on esa due to anxiety and depression ,so also get council tax benefit as im a single parent just me and daughter at home. Thanks in advance to anyone who can try and help .

Hi can anyone one help I am a single mum with three children two disabled, I have received a letter from HMRC saying that they have been informed that someone is living with me when I have not and have concrete proof can you help please Thank you

Hi all! I hope someone can advise me here, I'm due to go to appeal for my daughters DLA and it is likely we will win (again!). My problem is i owe a large amount of money to the DWP and to the housing due to a massive over payment. I strongly suspect the backdated carers allowance, DLA and housing benefit will be taken off my debt so i wont receive the back pay? Am i correct? The Housing underpaid us recently by over £500 and that got deducted from our debt. I will get to keep the backdated tax credits i assume but i was looking forward to buying some specialist ( and very expensive!) equipment for my daughter to improve things Thank you for your help!

Are parents aware that the Child Support Agency (CSA) are going to be closing claims down by the end of 2017? It will be replaced with something called "The Child Maintenance Service" (CMS) for short, if not you may want to read up on this here https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/improving-the-child-maintenance-system Partial quote "The improvements planned by the government will help separated parents work together on the range of issues they face at separation, including arranging child maintenance. Child maintenance is regular, reliable financial support paid by one parent (the paying parent) to the other (the receiving parent) that helps towards a child’s everyday living costs". Actions Closing Child Support Agency cases "We will close Child Support Agency (CSA) cases by the end of 2017. We will ask parents to consider their options for their future child maintenance arrangements. This is to allow parents an opportunity to consider alternatives to using the Child Maintenance Service. Using this service incurs a cost to the applicant and, depending on arrangement type, could also incur ongoing collection and enforcement charges". It looks like that Government want to charge the parent/s to use this service, so it may pay you to read up on this now so you are prepared for this change. Further readings are available from here http://www.cmoptions.org/

Is this good news for families? Your thoughts please "For the first time, parents will be able to claim back 70% of childcare costs no matter how many hours they work, on top of the money they get to help with the costs of bringing up a child, such as child benefit. This is rising to 85% in 2016 because we are increasing childcare support by £350 million within Universal Credit. Parents can start claiming childcare costs at least a month before they start work, giving children the time to settle into a routine and parents more opportunity to focus on their job from day one." This quote is from here https://www.gov.uk/government/news/welfare-transformation-comes-to-families-in-more-areas

I had driving offence just before Christmas 2014,, was fined by magistrates court amount £500.00 .. I am on benefits ,spoke to clerk of the court on phone requesting £20.00 per week on payment card ,, made 3 payments on card , benefits were taken unlawfully from bank account , had no money to feed daughter or pay bills for 2 weeks ,unable to continue to pay off fine on card. I received an enforcement notice from excel civil enforcement dated 18/02/2015 asking me to contact them before the 28.02/2015, ,,i am on benefits ,I am 30 yrs old benefits each week amount to £110.00 per week , I am a single parent . I rang excel on the 26th of February ,,they told me that the minimum I could pay was £35.00 per week ,despite me informing her I could not afford that much , she said I would have to make 12payments of £35.00 and one single payment of £20.00., ,despite my protests and telling her numerous times I could not afford that amount out of my weekly benefit amount of £110.00 per week shewas insistent that they would not accept anything else , I made an arrangement for the amount of £35.00 per week to be direct debited from my bank account . I made a £20.00 payment , ,but before any of the direct debits could be taken ,my benefit money was unlawfully taken from my account which left me with £4.82 p to live on ..in the meantime ,I contacted the police about money being removed from my account , ,they gave me a crime number ,,I was borrowing money from family land friends for basics ,food ,gas and electric ,dinner money for my 8 year old daughter ,this morning ,27 th March ,,excel bailiffs knocked on my door at 6.30 a.m ,,intending to remove goods ,informed me that he was recording and filming all conversations and what was happening . I asked him If I could call the court office when it opened at 9 oclock to tryand arrange a payment and explain the situation of all monies being taken from my account unlawfully also asked the bailiffif he would be prepared to do the same thing arrange payments ,,he said no ,he was there to take the payment in fll ,which amounted to original £470.00plus the compliance fee £55.00 ,plus enforcement fee of £235.00,,. ..told me that if I didn,t pay him the full amount he would get a warrant immediately to remove the goods ,,told him that they were on hp ,he said he would take the only settee I had ,it would be sold for next to nothing and that he would come back for more ,,I tried to make a payment arrangement with him numerous times but he declined each time and stated that only full payment would be accepted he was not prepared to come to any payment arrangement of any kind and that it would be a waste of time ringing the magistrates courts as that they were the ones that had sent him,as he knows what they would say , ,and they woud not be prepared to come to any arrangement as they would only tell me exactly what he had told me i.e. payment in full as he knows how they work .I asked my friend over the phone to pay £301 on his debit card ,I had to pay £100.00 out of my rent money ,then contacted my father over phone who said he would pay the remaining amount £360.00, ,I asked him if he could go to my fathers to fetchthe 360 ,then wait until 9 a.m.for me to contact the court office to speak to them and try to make other payment arrangments and after he picked the money up from my father he could cme back to me to find out what the court had said ,but he said no ,as his vehicle was tracked ..I had to telephone my friend again ,who was in work ,who offered a part payment of £300.00 and then would he come to an arrangement with my self to pay the remaining balance in instalments I could afford ,but the bailiff said a firm no !!..payment mustbe made in full today. .Now I have no money for rent ,for food ,for gas for electric etc;; ..despite me informing the bailiff , I have his name ,of my situation and that my 8 year old daughter was upstairs who would go hungry and cold ..after payments were made by my friend and father ,,he then wroteout on a form a controlled goods agreements ,,Ido not understand why he handed methis controlledgoods form and made me sign it after thedebt had been paid in full ,I am destitute ..please help

Hello everyone. I was wondering if anyone can give us any advice on child tax credit overpayment. I am from Pakistan and my wife is British. My case was in the home office for around 2 years and got my residence permit in June 2011. I applied for national insurance number and got it 31 October 2011. My wife and I got married in 2005 but due to me not having any paper work and due to problem with money we did not apply for my immigration papers till 2007. Because of all that my wife was receiving tax credit under single person. As my immigration papers went in the home office. My wife told tax credit on 30th march 2007 that she was wanted to change her single claim to joint claim but the problem was that they were asking for my national insurance number which i didn't had. In the end wife spoke to some kind of manager at tax credit office over the phone who advised that the only way to get tax credit is for her to claim as a single parent. As she was advised by someone at the tax credit office, my wife again made a claim under single parent so she can start receiving the money as the money was stopped on the joint claim as we could not provide tax credit with my NI number. On 31 October I received my NI number. As my wife was and still suffering from depression and other health problems we decided that all the benefits would change under my name. As we thought the tax credit kind of knew that i was living over here, we left the tax credits till last and changed the income support and housing benefits under my name first. We also knew that we could have claimed more under a joint claim but that would have meant everything stopped at once and we would have no money to live on hence we thought that we would take less money rather than no money. In may 2013 we received a letter from tax credit telling us that we have been Over paid from 31 October 2011 to January 2012. This was the period from which i got my NI number till the date we applied for the tax credit under joint claim. We appealed against the decision which was turned down. We than tried to involve our MP who wrote the letter to tax credit and received the reply today saying that the overpayment is still due. Our MP asked them to apply the "NOTIONAL ENTITLEMENT" which was turned down as well. It seems that the advice the wife was given about claiming as a single parent was under the table and the tax credit has totally denied any kind of advice given to my wife. However she must repay the overpayment of £2271.87, which occurred due to delay in her reporting her correct circumstances after 31 October 2011. "In certain circumstances, we can apply 'Notional entitlement' where a customer has made a claim in the wrong capacity. However Mrs *****'s overpayment does not meet the criteria for Notional entitlement. Therefore, we are right to ask her to repay the overment." From what i read over the Internet i thought Notional entitlement was applied as long as you have not gained from the situation, In our case we did not gain anything from claiming as a single person but actually lost money as we would be entitled to more under a joint claim. My wife have got history of mental health issues and even at that time was taking medicines for depression. Even right now she is on DLA. I was wondering if anyone can help us and give us some advice. I do apologize for the long post and would be grateful if anyone can help us. Thanks.

Has any one been following the research paper (RP) about child care costs? if not this is a well worth read see here http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2014-15/childcarepayments.html description This is a report of the House of Commons Committee Stage of the Childcare Payments Bill. The Bill would introduce a new tax-free childcare scheme to support eligible parents with childcare costs. Under the scheme, the Government would provide 20 per cent support on costs up to £10,000 per year for each child via an online account. The Government would top up any payments made into the account, capped at a maximum Government contribution of £2,000 a year for each child.

Hi everyone, I have some question regarding child tax credit (CTC) and would be most grateful if you could help. Going back to oct 2013, I appealed against a decision where HMRC didn't pay the disability elements of our child's tax credit for 1 full year during oct 12/oct 13. My child at the time was on high rate care and mobility. After a lengthy battle, my appeal has been accepted my the tribunal judge in my favour. It was my first time at the tribunal, so I was extremely nervous. In fact I was that nervous, I forgot to ask what happens after the appeal. This is what the judge has written in the appeal letter:- DECISION NOTICE 1. The appeal is allowed 2. The decision made on 01/10/2013 is set aside 3. The tribunal is satisfied that the appellent did notify the Tax Credit office of the reinstatement of his daughters DLA on the 14th of Dec 2012. The enhanced payments including the severe disability element should be reinstated from then. For now I have a few questions:- 1. The letter states that the tribunal has no powers in enforcing them to pay, so how does it work? 2. Can they still appeal against the judge's decision or are they not allowed? Thank you

HI guys/girls My daughter's 8 month daughter is in GOSH waiting cancer treatment,her work is NOT going to pay for the time she needs off to deal with this. what is her rights to benefits (she has worked fulltime all of life and for this company for the last 5 yrs )she has 2 weeks holiday which she is using at the min,they have said she can have time off but unpaid any advice would be helpfull Thankyou

Hi Was wondering if anyone could give any advice please for a friend of mine who was off work for 5 months from Nov last year till March this year, he gets full pay for 6 months sick then half pay if off after 6 months, in Nov this year he has been off sick for 3 weeks and the doctor has just given him a sick note for another 2 weeks and he has been informed at work that as it is within a twelve month period he will go onto half pay after another week as his 6 months full pay will be up. Question is if he does not go back to work after another week he will need to let the child tax credit people know as it states on their website: to let them know if Ill or in hospital for more than 28 weeks (adults only) Within 1 month But does that mean 28 weeks continuous,or a build up of 28 weeks within a specific period of time, how is it worked out, would the child tax credit dept work it out the same as his company from Nov last year to Nov this year or is it worked out different, plus is he entitled to claim ESA if he goes onto half pay and will he lose his child tax credits. Any thoughts please Tinks

Parents who default on child maintenance payments face being turned down for mortgages and credit cards under new government plans. From March 2015, information from parents' payment records in England, Scotland and Wales could be shared with credit reference agencies. Financial organisations would then use this data to decide whether or not they want to offer someone credit. The record of a missed payment won’t appear on a credit record until a liability order is made against them.

Hi, My brother recently split with his partner ( over three months ago ).He now lives apart from her with my young nephew.He was the sole carer for the first 6 weeks ( approx ). They then went to Court over custody and an intrim order gave residency to my brother with my nephew stopping with his mother for two nights a week. The court has now decided upon indefinite 50/50 residency. Throughout my brother has not received any financial support other than a couple of small crisis payments and the odd food parcel. He has been told that he cannot get IS because he needs to be in receipt of the Child Benefit, which we assume his ex is getting. He has been to his MP but has still not received any financial support. Can this be right ? Also, as custody is now split with each having my nephew for 5 days at a time, how are future benefits going to be paid ie for 5 days my brother cannot work but then for 5 days he could / can the Child Benifit be split at source etc BTW my nephew is 27 months old. thoughts please .

Hi Son is 16, on approved training course. Returned completed form to Child Benefit before the cut off date in August, child benefit stopped. Wrote to Child Tax credits to inform them of approved training course. Tax credits also stopped. Would you advise what to do next? Thanks

Not sure if someone else has come across this But I am facing 2 HMRC Issues which shows their non professionalism and inadequacy: Issue One (1): Last year my Spouse was on Maternity for 1 year which included paid, Statuary and Unpaid 3 months of Maternity pay. Since it affected our overall income I rang up HMRC and requested them if we are eligible for any Benefits due but they did calculation based on previous year and said we do not qualify for any benefits as we earned over £32000 for previous year and requested us to call them back later. However few months after my son was born and my wife's maternity finished I called them up again and asked for Child Benefit as our actual annual income for whole year fell below the estimated annual income but this time around guy working out said we do qualify and should've received tax credits HAD we called and Claimed benefits earlier. I disputed that I did call earlier but was given wrong information but he stuck to argument since I never claimed within given months I've now lost out on it. Issue Two (2): I received a letter from HMRC that I currently owe them approximately £500 in tax from year 2013-2014. Problem is that last year when I changed my employment I was charged at Basic Rate so I called up HMRC and told them about my change of job and salary etc and they said they would automatically send new Tax Code into new Employer's System which they did. Now If they are the one who put tax code into system and were aware of all my change in employment details they are responsible for not charging me correctly. Saying that do they have a right to charge me back dated tax for a mistake they made? I've recently read in local newspapers that they have done that with many others this year as they had issue with their computer systems. Can this case be argued and is there a way that outstanding tax be waived off if I put a challenge up with HMRC? Any help will be highly appreciated

I have recently been stopped using a child ticket on my return journey from london on the train and been told to wait for the train company to write to me about what further action is being taken. I am very worried as i hardly travel by train and strongly believed that as i am still in full time education i was entitled to the child fare (all other times i have been with family who have paid for me or been under 16) which i know now is not the case. as i never travel by train i am not confident using the ticket machines so went to the booth to make sure i was given the correct ticket for the journey that i wanted were i was issued with a child ticket and was not asked my age or for any id or informed of the age restrictions on a child ticket. i was not stopped leaving my station or arriving in london so was therefore still under the impression i had the right ticket. the next day once again i was able to go through the london barriers with the ticket to go home but once i reached my home station i saw a penalty notice that under 16s were not permitted travel on childs tickets and started to worry, as i went to the station the ticket barriers didnt let me through as i was the questioned by the staff their my age in which i started to panic and lied about my age but then when further questioned i admitted my real age and gave all my real details and was then read my rights and asked to sign a statement and to expect a letter through the post with no idea what outcome i might get from this, i want to do all i can to prevent getting a criminal record as i am due to go to university next year and i dont want this affecting my life and i have never done anything like this before, what should i do?

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.