worried about working families tax credit

[panicked]

Help, please! We are being investigated by the Working Families Tax Credit people, i.e the Inland Revenue and could really do with some advice. I know you're not allowed to have over £8,000 worth of savings and I'm pretty sure we didn't at the time we applied but I've just added up the balances in all our bank accounts on the dates they've asked for and if we count the child benefit in the children's account I think the total is £460 ??? over £8k. It didn't stay this way for long, i.e less than a week or something once mortgage payments etc went out but we're really worried about it. So does anyone know:
Do amounts in the childs name count towards your £8,000 asset figure? It's a Re account, ie in the name of Mr & Mrs x re child 1, 2 etc so in theory it's not allowed to be spent unless it's for the benefit of the child. I hadn't even considered it when we applied as the money goes straight in and we don't touch it if we can help it. They know how much it is a week since that goes on the form we filled in.

Also, am I right in thinking that child maintenance doesn't count? I'm sure all the forms said they didn't want to know about this but they are now asking me what the transfer is in our bank account on x date is for and who it's from. I will tell them it's maintenance but can I take this off the asset total, i.e since it doesn't count towards WFTC then surely I didn't have to take it into account when calculating the total we had? (If this comes off we were under £8,000) The second date they're asking about is fine since we had nowhere near these savings by then, 6 months later. We have been totally stressed about this for days now so thanks if anyone knows the answers or has experienced this. I've changed my name out of embarrassment, sorry. We're worried since they're asking about ridiculous things like how come husband transferred £50 to me on x date (his half of household bills which are dd'd from my account) and I feel so investigated. I'm an honest person so this is really worrying. thanks.

Don't panic! Child maintenance doesn't count. Child benefit doesn't count. If you were only over by such a tiny amount you may just get a formal letter reminding you not to do blah blah blah. There has probably been a sift of bank accounts in excess of x on x day and those cases have all been pulled out for a quick visit/investigation. You're hardly fiddling are you, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Actually, money in children's savings accounts DOES count towards your savings... Otherwise there would be nothing to stop someone unscrupulous (not saying you are) from putting all their assets in the children's names. (I believe this used to happen & that's why they changed the rules).

If you didn't have over £8K when you actually applied or in the however many weeks before period, then you'll be OK.

thank you, thank you so far, tallulah what if it's all accumulated child benefit in children's account, which it was?

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Sorry for rushed answer - was reading and writing at work, and hadn't read it all properly. I don't work for the IR so can't really say what amount they consider serious enough to be in breach of the rules. I do work for another govt dept (still tax) and, if it was me, I'd just send you some kind of warning and would be looking at people who were really attacking the system. Don't know if there is some kind of penalty regime or whether they'd demand full refund of monies paid so far. If I were you, I'd confess completely and state, very nicely, that it was a genuine oversight and misunderstanding/misinterpretation of the guidelines ie because the savings were from child benefit you just assumed there was no need to declare them.

I must admit, I've worried about this in the past. I receive money, paid into my account, by my mum each month to help me financally. I've never declared this since I just see it as maintenance (which it is!) just that it's paid by my mum not my duaghter's father. Having said that, not been able to claim WFTC for over a year now anyway.