Surely this can’t be right? Child maintenance

[MintGreenPolo]

My ex doesn’t pay any maintenance and never has since we split 6/7 years ago. He doesn’t work and instead rents out the rooms in his flat. He lives in central London so the rooms go for quite a bit and if he was declaring it he would have to pay £380 a month maintenance, but of course he isn’t so he doesn’t have to pay anything. Recently he went on to benefits, I thought this would be fraud but apparently not?! Apparently he can claim benefits as not working AND rent out the rooms and not have to declare it and it’s totally fine? How is that right? Surely this can’t be right? He doesn’t have to declare no matter the amount apparently. This seems so wrong

£380 a month would be a massive amount to me. He won't work he will just come off them

I think you should check your legal rights here. I don't think you can just refuse to let the other parent see their child unless there is a danger to you or the child (and even then it's difficult).

Just don't want you setting yourself up for a difficult court case in case it goes that far.

Do you think he's committing fraud of some type? If so report him.

But stop railing against this particular rule - it exists for good reason, which is it costs a lot to house people, and we have high homelessness, so making a room available for someone is a social good which benefits the state and the general citizenry.

It is awful if he's a shit dad, but this rule is right.

From the screenshot posted it would seem as though he is entitled to exclude income from renting out rooms in his home - from his benefits claim.

However, income from renting out rooms, above £7k, is subject to income tax. He should complete a self assessment form so this can be calculated.

His total income should be reviewed for calculating child maintenance.

I guess the issue you have, OP, is lack of proof of his rental income. This doesn't mean you cannot report him to HMRC for tax fraud or the CMS for failure to disclose income.

Why is complaining on mumsnet a good substitute for telling his local council and the tax office?

Sorry I should clarify he will only see them if it's at my house. He won't take them as he has nowhere to take them. Since I've stopped allowing it in my home he hasn't bothered I've said he can take them out but he doesn't want to hang around on the street with them the most he would do is take them to the park and back but because we live 90 mins from each other and he doesn't drive he doesn't want to do that and hasn't seen them since may.

Because apparently they won't be interested and he is doing a good thing by helping the homeless?

If he’s getting £2k a month in rent from his tenants, then report him to HMRC for not paying tax. They’ll care about that.

If he’s paying tax, then the CMS can calculate maintenance.

Regardless if he manages to be a weird edge case that demonstrates that the UC rules are stupid.

They may or may not be interested.

But they definitely can't be if he's not reported.

And the pp did not mean him specifically - she meant the policy is a good thing. You problem is related to the potential abuse of a good policy. Which you either act on in RL, or choose not to. Your call.

Hopefully, this thread has been useful in terms of laying out your options to report him to HMRC for not declaring income through renting rooms that exceeds £7k.

In terms of access to your children, how about you deciding what you think is in their best interests when it comes to then spending time with him and weighing this up against what you think is reasonable in terms of facilitation access in your home. Once you have decided upon this, you can do what you can to make this happen. If he chooses not to see his children because he isn't willing to make plans outside of your home to do that, there isn't anything you can do

I understand YOU are annoyed by his behaviour, but surely you are able to understand why the government would want to encourage people rent out rooms?

He is either earning under the legal threshold or he is committing fraud. If you suspect fraud, report it.

There is no point moaning on here about a perfectly sensible approach to lodger income.

Wow the comments and advice on this thread are mostly awful, good old MN.

Because I assumed there would be a cut off? Claiming umeployment benefits whilst getting 2k a month? I've heard people needing to declare items they've sold on eBay

The OP has received sympathy/concern for the fact her ex is a bad father, but he's either within the law - and I personally think the rules on lodger income are correct - or he is committing fraud. If fraud, there is the option to report - why will the OP not do this?

What response do you think we should give - the thread is in 'Legal'.

So is this actually a benefits bashing thread?

Is the issue you want your ex to be poorer?

There IS a cut off, it is £7k per year. If your ex is in receipt of £2k/month, he is committing fraud of some type. Why don't you report?

Income from lodgings - allowed up to £7k/year - are classified as earnings for good reasons. The reason is it is one way for those on disability benefits, pension credit etc to increase their income despite being unable to work. Due to housing shortages this is a good idea.

I'm ASKING if this is fraud and I've already posted a picture showing he can apparently earn what he wants whilst claiming benefits, that doesn't sound right so I've asked for clarification on this.

We can't tell you if his actions amount to fraud.

Posters can and have told you who to report him to and their investigations will determine if there is fraud or any other wrongdoing. There is also advice on how to approach CMS about variation because of anomaly anomaly.

Now it's up to you to decide if you will do that or not.

If you sell items and get paid more than £1000 a year you need to do a self-assessment tax return.

if you rent a room you can do that for up to £7k before declaring it.

two different pieces of legislation.

How frustrating for you.

Any chance he put any of this in a text? Can you screenshot the advert in which he advertises the room for £2k a month?

It sounds like there is potentially some sort of fraud going on, you just need to work out which and report to the relevant bodies. Put in a claim through CMS too as others have posted.

He has to declare income from renting rooms in his home on a self assessment tax return if it goes over the rent a room allowance

I would report him, whether or not I feel it's pointless the bloke is an absolute prick 🤣 report him to HMRC, UC and CSA. Get the ball rolling with CSA and if your not happy with the outcome keep fighting it I've had to do this with my ex was self employed, changed his name and wouldn't tell me where he lived they eventually after going on and on at them did a financial investigation and he got caught out was brought in for an interview and is being done for fraud and owes me a lot of money! They have also granted a liability order so basically bailiff will be going there and if he don't pay up he will end up having items removed from his home it takes a while and took me 3 years of fighting but I got it in the end! Trust me just report him for it all too everyone!

Also does he own this flat? Or is it rented? Because if it's rented then it's defo fraud as his landlord prob doesn't know he's pocketing from it id report him to him too

It's housing association

What a fantastic outcome! I see so many threads from desperate women who know their ex has more income than they have declared but are not able to do anything about it. Perhaps you could post your story somewhere and how you managed it to achieve this outcome because this would be a fantastic resource for other women in similar situations.

Try the housing association then. Sub-letting to create an HMO might not be something they allow either.

Ultimately though, your problem is that he is an abominable shit who is completely failing in even the most basic aspects of fatherhood. There’s nothing that anyone can do that will make him a vaguely acceptable father.