child tax credits

[stephen2504]

im asking a question on behalf of a friend he split up with his girlfriend and she has one child with him and one with someone else she has been claiming tax credits for both children while living with her new boyfriend she has now asked my friend to let the 1 child live with him and let him claim child tax credits for the one child and for him to give her the money she loses out on and my friend keep the rest to help him out a bit. she now says because she is only claiming for 1 child she is losing 200 pound a month which he does not believe her my friend is on the dole and the maximum he gets for 1 child is 200 pound month i think she will probably lose about 130 month and she is just saying 200 to get extra money herself any thoughts i hope i havent confused things with this question

[spikeyhair]

This does sound unclear!
Does your friend receive Child Benefit for the child and CTC? He should be careful about informal arrangements to give money for children - why would he accept his entitlement to money for his child and pass on the money to someone else who is not looking after the child, how will he support the child, from what you outline it seems odd to say the least?
If he has his child with him and has no paid employment, does he not need the money to provide for his child? That is what CTC and child benefit are for, surely.......

[NiceCupOfTea]

You can't get tax credits if your on the dole, only if you're working. I think.

[factor-fiction]

Sorry you've confused me- it is rather a long sentence so I couldn't follow it..... and I certainly can't see a question in there. Are you asking whether the amount she loses each month is likely to be nearer �130 than �200. The whole thing sounds odd to me- why would she do it?

[stephen2504]

sorry it is confusing im confused myself i will try to clear it up a bit my friend claims the tax credits and child benefit and passes it on to his ex and she still looks after both children and she says whatever she loses in tax credits my friend gives her out of what he gets. because he is on the dole he gets maximum child tax credit which is roughly 200 pound a month and she is now saying she loses 200 pound a month by only claiming for 1 child even tho she lives with her boyfriend who earns about 18000 a year and she works part time earning about 5000 a year we think she is only losing a fraction of that 200 pound and is trying to get extra money out of my friend if anyone has any thoughts let us know

[bednobs]

if the money is for the child, he SHOULD hand it all over! It's for the care of the child, so the person who is caring for the child should have it, surely?
Still a bit confused, but it seems like what you are saying is that he gets 200 quid ctc and cb but only wants to give the child 130 of it and keep 70 quid for hmself! lovely.

[factor-fiction]

Sorry, I'm still struggling to follow this- I can't work out where one sentence ends and the next begins. I lost track and I'm sure the two versions are saying different things about who the child lives with.

If I have understood this arrangement I would question whether it is fraudulent? I would have thought that only the person looking after the child should make the claim.

And in the unlikely event that this arrangement is legal surely he should hand all �200 over.

[themas]

1. Your 2 posts are contradictory. The first says one of the 2 children will live with him; the second says they will both live with her. Which is correct?

2. If they both live with her but he claims CB & CTC for one of them this is fraudulent. If he does it he is committing an offence and could be prosecuted &/or fined.

3. If one child is living with him then he should claim CB & CTC & keep all the money in order to care for the child.

4. If the salary figures you give are correct the total CTC she will get for the 2 children are about �50 p wk. At most she would lose about half of this if she lost one of the children.

[NiceCupOfTea]

This sounds like something out of 'Shameless'!!!!

[cherrychapstick]

well i think i get the jist of it ,the father has been asked by the mother to pretend he looks after 1 child so she can do the taxpayer out of money , she loses out on one parent benefit because she now lives with her new partner while the father is classed as a single parent .so now she has 2 incomes and one parent benefit and extra tax credits ,wish i had thought of that one!!!! tell your friend to stop doing it as when he gets caught it will be him that gets done not the mother who is getting all the money ,i am guessing that there is no receipts to say he is giving her money ,and why is the csa not involved ,it was still standard procedure in may last year that they had to claim it