Child support and implications with benefits

[Jessie3943]

Hello
I currently receive £1200 in child support from my daughters father due to the nature of his career. This is in line with the cma guidelines, however is a private arrangement opposed to an enforced one.

We split up when I was six months pregnant and he moved countries for work (living in France) I still live in his property with our daughter but he lives and owns his other home in France.

My daughters only one year old so I decided to go back to work part-time opposed to full-time. I am a teacher so get a fairly basic wage and as a result I am entitled to child tax and working tax credits including help for childcare costs.

From everything I have read, child support doesn't have any impacts on benefits or tax credits. Is this correct? friends have been questioning how I can be entitled to full tax credits when I get such a high amount in child support which has led me to question if I am actually entitled? I phoned tax credits and they've told me themselves that child support is not considered income towards their calculations. I however, don't want to be found out to be doing something I shouldn't or claiming them fraudulently. As this isn't a written agreement (just a personal agreement paid by bank transfer monthly) what if they question if its even child support and not some other undeclared earnings?

Child maintenance from your dds father has no bearing on what other benefits you claim. I am in a similar position as in didnt i do well marrying and then divorcing a man who earns a lot, and who also pays above the cms minimum by independant agreement and transfers it monthly without cms involvement. I do claim other benefits but not all, enough that we are comfortable but i also didnt wish to milk the system for every penny seeing as my child maintenance money was high.

Yes it's odd that you can get that much and it have no bearing on benefits. Apparently it's because it's classed as unreliable income despite the fact that many nrp's pay regularly and reliably week in week out, year in year out.

Definitely no need to worry about child maintenance affecting benefits. ExH is a high earner so I got a good four figure chunk in maintenance every month (albeit a tiny fraction of his salary), but I was still entitled to tax credits. I had it checked several times by my solicitors and it was all above board. Some other benefits are affected by savings though, so I couldn't claim them as I got a large settlement after the divorce.

Babyroobs and many many others do not pay reliably. Before the rules were changed mothers and children were left hungry and unable to pay for any bills , gas meter etc.

Now it's seven - Yes and you would think by now there would be some system devised whereby tax credits could be claimed regardless of maintainance and then reduced or pad back if the nrp doesn't pay maintenance so that no-one suffers. Or the CMS could do a better job of making nrp pay for their kids instead of the state paying when the nrp chooses not too. It's not rocket science. With Universal credit ( and yes I know there are problems) surely if a claimant is updating income monthy then it wouldn't be hard to include maintainance received and then tax credits be paid accordingly. I know someone who gets £1400 a month child maintainance and still has full entitlement to tax credits as someone on the same wage with the nrp paying nothing. How is this at all fair please tell me ??

Sorry I meant to say paid back if the nrp does pay maintainance.

It's ridiculous that the state gives out free money to support children when both parents are willing and able to !

It a better for a child to have " extra" than not enough.

The bottom line is that if a rp is receiving £1200 a money for the upkeep of children it is highly unlikely that they need ( sometimes hundreds of pounds worth ) of tax credits on top. I understand that this amount of maintainance is not the norm for many parents but this is just beyond belief . There must be a way to work out who needs the money and who doesn't to make sure public money is directed where it is most needed.

They isn't a way though , there are two options.
A) reduce benefits in relation to maintenance and a significant number of children and mothers suffer.

B) do not include maintenance when working out benefits and some children and mothers get a higher standard of living.

Which option would you pick?