at the moment i dont have CSA agreement or any type of legaly binding child maintance order. Husband left in May all i have is letter from his lawyer quoting ` he currently pays £.... in child maintance` he also pays for some of the other houshold items ie mortgage/gas elec by direct debit.
We are at the stage where we are trying now to sort out our own arrangement rather than line lawyers pockets.
I decided to apply for CTC/WTC and i know child maintance does not count for this.
As i do not have CSA agreement etc i called them up re the money my husband pays ie the supposed child maintance and other items he pays towards the house, but they were not sure. I have applied anyway as i have letter from lawyer quoting the figure i have from him coming physicaly into the house as child maintance, any out there any advise on this.
I just was not sure if without agreement if money he pays for daughter could be classed as maintance.
Money he pays for items such as mortgage, gas/elec tv licence/insurance/car classed as my income.
Did call Tax place but they could not give me answer
so i have claimed, but now worried in case i should not have. do i wait until i hear from them, keep the money aside then write in and question. any advise

Income is just what you earn yourself if you have a job.

Other payments such as mortgage, bills etc are not income and will represent what you would have as spousal maintenance in the future.

All maintenance will be disregarded as far as WFTC and CT are concerned. As I said WFTC will be calculated on your earnings, if you work.

WFTC will be triggered if you work 16 hours a week, it will be recalculated if you work more than 30hrs a week. They will also contribute towards child care as long as you use a registered child care provider.

Thanks for the quick reply, i work 3 hours a week, and use registered childminder, i have done the online calculator and it tells me that i am due something. I have est my income for the current year as im hoping my husband will take on board more of the school holidays so i dont have to take as much unpaid leave over school holidays, tax credit people told me to do this, at least this way if my inc turns out to be less at the end of the year i might be due money back instead of owing them.
many thanks again

Hi

My ex gives me an agreed amount each month which he calculated by the amount of the mortgage and rates, he doesn't give me anything in addition to this so I have classified this as maintenance for tax credit purposes as basically that's what it is and if ever i speak to my ex i refer to it as the maintenance payment. Tax credits don't take into account any maintenance you receive so even if you're getting a bit more than CSA guidelines they don't take that into account. As long a you've been honest with them, i'm sure everything will be fine, I told them the amount i was receiving but said that wouldn't affect my claim.
good luck

yes - have been honest with them - thats why i called before sending the form in, was just a bit put off by the person i spoke to as they did not seem to know, they did guide me some notes which discribed other income, but i felt that this did not apply. Was just a bit surprised that without any thing in writing confirming money is maintance that they would just accept this as being the case. I do have letter from husbands lawyer fortunatly but nothing else so i am being as honest as i can in saying because letter says its maintance then i have to accept this.

Hi LJ

was 3 hours a week a typo?

You need 16 hours to qualify for WTC .....

poppy
x

Hi,

If you do work 30 hours a week and not 3 hours as stated then why can't you use the childminder in the holidays as well. WTC will pay upto 80% I think it is upto a maximum amount. Is it because you have children that are usually at school as well as younger ones at the childminder's all day?

Like Poppy says, you need to work 16 hours a week to claim WTC and childminding costs as a single parent.

xx Sarah xx