Joint to single tax credits claim

[lalah7]

Hello
I'm looking for some help/advice around tax credits. Bit of backstory, my partner and i decided to split finally last Monday. He has moved to his mum's and sees our 2 dd (5 and 1) while I am at work 2 evenings and a Saturday morning, we will review this in time. He had been lying about/hiding money and taking out loans without my knowledge. He hasn't been able to tell me where the money's gone and this, along with the lies, are the main reasons for the split. Things are pretty amicable at the moment and i am hoping it stays that way. The girls don't know yet, eldest dd thinks he is working away.
My thoughts have turned to finances now it looks like this will be a permanent split. I am due our normal tax credit payment on Thursday so am going to wait until then to call them as I am aware my payments will stop until my single claim is reassessed.
My worry us proving that we are no longer a couple. I have seen/heard of so many cases recently where people have been investigated then had to pay back their entire awards. How do I prove we're not a couple? He has been taken off tenancy agreement and council tax, we have no joint bank accounts, i will ask him to change his address with the bank etc. We have a car each, the insurance policies are both in my name with him as a named driver, will this need to be changed now or can we deal with it at the time of renewing the car insurance? Also, he is on the electoral roll here, will I need to get him removed or can I deal with that on the annual review in autumn?
Sorry if I haven't been very articulate, this is all new and i am still coming to terms with it all. I am heading to work soon so may not be able to reply until later to tonight. Any advice is much appreciated. Thank you.

You would be notified if they wanted to check and given an idea on evidence to provide. It might involve proving you've closed a joint account, proving his address via a letter in his name with a different address on, tv license/ council tax only in your name etc.

Oh and it unlikely that they would want this all immediately as they have no reason to think you're lying. They do some random checks, I was once asked to prove childcare costs, but the new claim should pay out within a couple of weeks of them getting the forms back

Great, thanks for that. Seems I'm worrying over nothing?

I was investigated- a great deal of stress. Had to send off bank statements, utilities, council tax etc to show they were all in my name. They could see from my statements that I was running the household myself. It was triggered because its still joint mortgage and he had taken out a credit card from my address. He was legally entitled to do this as its still his house. The people at the tax credits were really nice to deal with. They asked for 6 months statements, I have them 12 months and just bent over backwards to prove my case was genuine. After a few weeks of receiving my documents they were happy with what they'd seen.

Thanks mama.
I do think I'm worrying over nothing at the moment. I am naturally a very anxious person and I just don't think I could handle the stress of it so am trying to head it off before it happens iykwim.
My biggest worry is that he continues applying for loans at my address. This would obviously trigger an investigation.
My head's in a muddle just now!!

I am in the same place, have just had my joint claim changed to a single persons one and am waiting out the 3 weeks for them to sort it. Also have to sort out HB and CTB

Oh and I need to phone CB and get that changed over too.

What a mess. Hope you're okay.

We are being really careful because he will be babysitting the children until early am probably 3 days a week because of my job. We need to prove he has no clothes here, nothing in the bathroom and he doesn't cook or clean his clothes here. What a mess

nomore

Who told you he is not allowed to keep a change of clothes at yours for when he is baby sitting?

I looked online and they base their assumptions on you living together by him not having clothes here, not having a sexual relationship with me, not doing his washing here, not cooking here and paying rent/bills from a different address.

oh and not sleeping here more than 3 nights a week

That 3 night thing is urban myth.

And under TC and HB rules ex partners are allowed to be at yours for baby sitting.

HB wise if he is maintaining different housing and using it as a house none of the rest matters.

TC wise if the above applies and you are not taking joint responsibility for your household not making future plans (holidays together ect) every thing has changed to his new address,he is not treating your home as his own,other people know you are single that sort of thing then you really do not need to panic if during baby sitting he cooks the kids meal or has a change of clothes (he is baby sitting over night it's not unreasonable to need to put clean stuff on).

They are not even allowed to ask you if you have sex nor where he sleeps.

When you read the manual each section has to be read in conjunction with the others no one bit is stand alone (behaviour wise) it would not be one action alone that would end up with a LTAHAW result it would be rather a lot.

E.g separate households,no financial links,no mailing lists,no joint responsibility for household, stays over for baby sitting has toothbrush and clean boxers/socks does his washing at home, wouldn't be a problem

Living under same roof but totally separate,everybody knows not a couple,no socialising (unless for carer reasons) each does own household chores so no joint cooking/cleaning/laundry and no joint financial responsibility could cause a problem but shouldn't and would be found not to be if appealed.

However the vast majority of stuff these days is done by data matching they have usually made their decision already (even if that's not what they should do) before they even contact you and have been known to ignore explanations so its always best to check and double check that data matching stuff is up to date

Yeah well we are changing absolutely everything we possibly can to fit into his new name and address.

We want to still be going away together as a family and going on family days and stuff to keep things normal for the children.

I don't want it to be weird for them.

That aspect may be an issue as it would be one of the things that during a decision would keep on popping up with a 'yeah but this happens' and combined with the other stuff would make it far more subjective doing anything 'as a family' would cause issues as the entire point is that you are NOT a family (don't forget family from a benefits perspective means something very different to family for other reasons).

what a shame for the children.

It looks like we're going through exactly the same things at the moment nomore. It's such a learning curve.
I too was (perhaps naively! ) hoping we could still do things together with the girls, but it seems that this is wrong, in the eyes of the benefits system at least.
Thanks for asking if I'm ok. I hope you are too. I've not had the best holiday weekend truth be told. But i accept I'm going to have good days and bad days. I'm plastering a smile on and carrying on for the girls's sake in the mean time.. x

Yes I am battling through it for the boys. His stuff is moving out today at least so for some of tonight and all of tomorrow I am going to get some headspace which is nice.

I still get that dreadful feeling every now and again but I know it is for the best.

We are still going to have family days with the children, if I have to go to court and inform them that I will not be preventing my children from having nice times with Both their parents then that is what I will do.

I will be working full-time soon and to have them gone from me all day and then half of my free time would be awful.

Much better to keep doing things as a family, when we can.