ex is leaving and is offering to pay mortgage, but will i be entitled to benefits??

[frenchconnection]

hi, my dh and i have finally decided to separate for good. I really dont want to leave our house but to start with it looked like we would have to sell and me rent a flat with the kids.
Now dh thinks he can afford to pay the mortgage for us (and him live elsewhere), but will i be entitled to claim income support etc?
i know the money for the children would be tax credits but they overpaid me by 8k 3yrs ago(!) and now i think i will have nothing to live on??
Have called tax credit people but line always busy.
Help?!

Hi. My dp pays the mortgage for his ex's house where his kids live and she doesn't get income support or claim CSA as he's paying a lot lot lot more than he would be forced to going down that route. Im not sure about child tax credits though. She may get working tax credits as she works part time.

Sorry, not sure how it would work in your situation, but i dont think you would get income support. But i could be wrong

thanks for reply.

so she solely lives off her part time wage? i am leaving my part time job in 2 weeks(not by choice) so will have nothing to live off! what do i do??

Hi there.

You will be able to claim income support for yourself of £57.00 a week, maybe different once maintainence is sorted.

Also regarding your tax credits you will have to get intouch with them or someone from the CAB to do it & let them know due to re paying this over payment it will now leave you in finacial hardship and they should reduce the ammount you are paying back to them each month.

I went through the same thing 3 years ago. Am going through the Taxcredit overpayment palarva now.

if you are not working not sure you will be entitled to tax credits, as they are credits you get for paying tax which presumably as unemployed you won't be doing. I might be wrong but i think thats how the crappy system works.

You would still get child tax credit. you wouldn't get working tax credit.

A single mum of two children would normally recive

£57.00 a week Income Support
And £78.00 a week child tax credits.

He pays for sky and a few of the other bills too and for her car. She pays for the rest

thanks megandsoph. so would you also get the child benefit too which is £116 a month for 2 kids? a woman i sort of know - in a similar position but has 3 kids gets around £800 a month altogether,which sounds a lot more!

Also as i put down nearly £50k on the house would this stop me getting income support/tax credits if i still live in the house? would the benefit people tell me to sell and then rent?

No no one apart from a court can make you sell the house & yes you would still be entitled to benefits. I remained in the marital home with the children until April last year (exh and I seperated in 03)ExH contiuned to pay the morgage on the property until it was finally sold last Sept (because my EX wasn't happy to continue paying morgage and I couldn't afford to keep fighting with solisitors).

When we first seperated I had to go onto income support but the system was very different then and I never recived tax credits but £120 a week income support plus my child benefit.

The way they do the benefits now is, you receive your CTC for the children you have, then you have the option of either keeping maintainence from your childrens father or claiming income support (where any maintence minus £10 will get sent to the goverment. I have chose to keep maintaince rather than doing income support.

You will keep receiving child benefit until the children are 16 or longer if continuing with education even if you were earning a fortune every resident parent receives this.

Also if you remain in the property you will get a 25% single occupant reduction on your council tax.

Gosh I so can't wait to get back into work again but won't happen for along time as start full time ed in Sept. This benefit malarky is poo

If you want more indepth advice I highly recommend contacting CAB & they will print you exactally what you are entitled to.

Good luck with everything

I thought if i was a single parent on income support then i got the whole council tax bill paid for me? (this was the case 6yrs ago when i was a single parent before)

Rather than just 25% discount?

frenchconnection no you wouldnt have to pay any council tax, but if you went to work you would have to pay but have the 25% discount