CSA and child tax credits

[Smai99]

Hope this is in the right place.

I have a partner who has children from a previous relationship. One of these children I did not know about. my partner recently received a letter stating that he must pay nearly £100 a week for these children. Now, I'm not disputing the fact that he must pay for his children, however I am disputing why that should come from a tax credit award that has been allocated to my children (which are also his). It seems that the CSA have obtained details of how much we get down to the last penny, and have totted up this lovely sum based on classing our joint tax credits award as HIS income. My question is can they just forcibly take any amount they want from the tax credits, like they do from wages? Do wages and tax credits form the same income or do they ignore tax credits if he has declared a regular wage?
As I stated before I agree he should pay (out of His wages) and he used to have a family arrangement (payments to her bank and he took kids on holidays and days out, bought clothes and shoes when asked. She even went on a spending spree at the Disney store and charged it to him!) until the ex found out about me and then suddenly the CSA got involved.

Afaik they can't take it from child tax credits if they are paid to you as your children's main carer. Even if its a joint claim the actual payment only goes to one of you who has the role of main carer, ours is a joint claim but as I look after the kids while DH works the tax credits are in my name IYSWIM.

If the child tax credits are in your husbands name then I'm not sure whether it would be counted as his income or not as they are paid for your joint children.

If the payment is in your name then you need to make the CSA/CMA aware of this.

It might be worth re-posting in legal and also getting an appointment with citizens advice.

Im sure that tax credits are classed as a joint income regardless of whos name its in if you are living together as a couple.

Csa do take tax credits into account. Its wrong imo.

I think they can take it which seems unfair as the children's mum is most likely claiming tax credits too, seems very unfair.

I've just had a quick google and according to the citizens advice website child tax credits and working tax credits are not counted as income for CMS.

I couldn't find anything that says whether it would be taken into account in the calculation though it does suggest that it wouldn't.

I'd get down to citizens advice as they should be able to give you a definite answer or find out for you.

Apologies for the multiple posts as I'm on my phone so can't flip between sites.

This is copied from the gov.uk website and states that the CMS shouldn't include tax credits in the calculation.

'The Child Maintenance Service will find out the paying parent’s yearly gross income from information supplied by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and check if they’re getting benefits (tax credits, student grants and loans don’t count as income).'

Thanks for your replies, it's much appreciated.
So can I then assume that the CSA sending my partner a letter saying he's earning £xxx.xx a week (the exact amount of tax credits I recieve to the penny) is just scaremongering tactics? It's like they obtained the info from the inland revenue as they know the exact amount I receive and it's s joint claim in both our names...

Everything I could find on gov.uk and citizens advice website relates to the child maintenance service (CMS) which is/has replaced the CSA.

If I were you I'd either phone the contact number on the letter your husband was sent (assuming there is one) and ask them why they're taking child tax credits as income as the gov.uk site says they aren't counted as earnings, or get in touch with citizens advice who can help you find legal advice.

All the info on the web seems to be rather wooly and not give a definite "this is excluded from the calculation", it just says its not counted as earnings.

Thank you, I think a trip/call to the CAB is definitely a must!

It depends whether your case has gone through CSA or CMS. Under the old CSA rules they would take tax credits into account but it would depend who the main earner is. As far as I'm aware, if the paying parent is the higher earner, they take it into account whereas if the partner (I.e. You) is the higher earner they don't take it into account. Though hopefully someone will correct me if I've got it the wrong way around.

If however it's been done super recently through the Child Maintenance Service, they don't take it into account and you should definitely speak to citizens advice.

Hope you manage to get things sorted. I really hate the CMS and hate that Mum's do it when they're already getting family based - my DP's ex did that as she thought she'd get more money. Hopefully things getting sorted so you're not in a worse off situation than you were with previous arrangment.