Should I Be Worried?

[LadyRobertaMeserole]

Ex & I split up about a year ago and we have two children who have always been home educated. We both wanted them to continue to be home educated so he gives me a bit more than CMS (he's a high earner anyway) and with eeking out some savings (and the odd weekly shop from my mum) it's just about doable until they finish education (another 2 years).

The only benefits I claim are child benefit and CTC.

DS1 is going to college 1 day a week this year and, as a low income household, we could apply for travel costs. Just had a phone call querying the application. She was very nice but basically she thought I was lying because, completely understandably, on paper it looks like we live on fresh air! Anyway, she just told me to send a covering letter explaining - so no problem there.

But now I'm worrying that at some point someone at CTC will also question my seeming lack of income and ask for it all back.
I've been completely honest in my application and I'm not trying to claim fraudulently but it does look questionable without the background information.
But I've read so many stories on here where people have had to pay benefits back ages afterwards I'm panicking.

If their father is a high earner, why is your mum feeding his children?

Did you report to HMRC when your DH moved out as that is a change of circumstances? Otherwise unless you have additional income not reported (other than maintenance) it should be fine for CTC and CB purposes.

Indeed, and as you can probably guess there's a whole emotionally abusive, controlling backstory better suited to the relationships board.

But as he is paying more than that recommended by the CMS he wouldn't be expected to pay more and I would (rightly) be expected to get a job to cover my responsibility to the DC.

Yes I informed everyone of the change of circumstances when Ex moved out and no, my only other income is maintenance.

I know I haven't done anything wrong and have been completely honest. The phone call just got me panicking because we are so tight on finances.
I think I'm just worrying unnecessarily.

Maybe I could set up a business teaching people how to live on fresh air and wishes

I'm not sure why she was questioning your lack of income as many people chose to claim just CTC and child benefit and live off that and CM rather than claim job seekers allowance which obviously would mean you had to job search for 35 hours a week which obviously won't be do-able when you are home schooling. Cm isn't taken into account for child tax credits so it's quite feasible to end up with a decent amount to live with with a decent amount of CM and CTC ( you will be getting the maximum amount if you have no other income). I think the reason it was probably queried is because to claim most means tested things like travel grants , free school meals, uniform grants etc then they expect you to be in receipt of a qualifying benefit like income support, JSA, ESA or basic UC which obviously you aren't because you don't meet the criteria to claim any of those.
what are you planning to live off when the children no longer qualify for CTC & CB and the Cm stops?

And just to add - there is no way they would ask you to pay the CTC back because you were perfectly entitled to them.

Thank you Babyroobs - that makes sense and is reassuring.

As for when the CM/CB/CTC stop I don't know - the last 8 months have been a rollercoaster due to problems with Ex.
Although I said it's possible for us to get by on maintenance/savings that is the worst case scenario.
Now things have settled down a bit I can start looking for opportunities for someone who's 50+, has lots of (very out of date) qualifications and hasn't worked for 14 years.

I know, I know, if I could go back in time I would have done many things differently.