Child Tax Credit

I'm hoping someone can help me. My husband ex has called CSA on us.

We have called them to give our evidence and today they said only 1 child is registered at our address.

They told us we need to apply for Child Tax Credit so my son will be included and counted as a child in our care.

My question is does this affect his visa. My husband will be the one to do the application. We have never done child tax credit and at a lost to why only one child is register at our address.

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I didn’t think child tax credits existed anymore? Wasn’t it replaced by universal credit?? Or were they talking about child benefit?


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I didn’t think child tax credits existed anymore? Wasn’t it replaced by universal credit?? Or were they talking about child benefit?


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Do you know how this affect us? My kids and I are on visas. Is there another way to prove that my son lives here at this address. They said they did a search and only my daughter came up.



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I think we need a bit more info.

Who lives in your house?
You
Husband
Your daughter (husband father, you mother)
Etc.

CSA as in the child support people?  Is the ex applying for CSA from your husband?  What is the current child support arrangement ?

I think we need a bit more info.

Who lives in your house?
You
Husband
Your daughter (husband father, you mother)
Etc.

CSA as in the child support people?  Is the ex applying for CSA from your husband?  What is the current child support arrangement ?

4 of us- my husband,  daughter  son and myself. Our stepnkids come on the weekends.

Unfortunately for us the agreement is verbal and we have nothing in writing, so basically her words against ours and they have taken her words over ours.

We already had an agreement in place but because its old and the CSA system was updated  she has now opened a new claim against us. We pay her monthly and have our bank account to prove this, as we send direct debit.

When we called them with our information, as they said she said she didn't know where my husband was and that he wasn't paying any support (all lies by the way) , they took our details and said if she agreed then the child support would be adjusted as we have a total of 4 kids to take care of. However, they have excluded my son and said they can't find him registered to this address. She also denied that the kids come here on the weekends. They literally were here this past  weekend.

They suggested applying for child tax credit for the children in our home. Which will show they live at our address. I am not sure what to do, as my children have visas and I dont want to apply for anything that they don't qualify for.

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Okay,  I’m still confused.

You (USC)
Husband (UKC)
Son (USC, not biological to your husband)
Daughter...  is she the UKC child who is not your biological child but is your husbands biological child?

CSA is actually a bad choice in the UK. It’s very little AND they charge the applicant (the ex) to manage it.  The online calculator will give you an idea of what she will be awarded.

But you are correct, your husband CANNOT claim benefits for a Non-UKC child. 

Okay,  I’m still confused.

You (USC)
Husband (UKC)
Son (USC, not biological to your husband)
Daughter...  is she the UKC child who is not your biological child but is your husbands biological child?

CSA is actually a bad choice in the UK. It’s very little AND they charge the applicant (the ex) to manage it.  The online calculator will give you an idea of what she will be awarded.

But you are correct, your husband CANNOT claim benefits for a Non-UKC child.

Daughter, son and myself are USC. Husband has ILR just approved for UKC. Daughter is biological to my husband and myself. My son is his step son.

We are trying to prove how many kids are in our home that we take care of and that live with us.  They said they found my daughter but can't find my son, living at this address. He's not registered, I'm not sure what they used to search.

The system here sucks as they only believe the mothers and not the fathers. So we are now paying an excessive amount as they won't count my son as I child we take care of.

Hope this helps. We used the calculator, it didn't work out as  the ex has denied what we have said, and that is now what they are using to determine what we pay.



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Basically it all comes down to parental responsibility.

Your son from a previous relationship who isn’t showing in the system....  has his biological father handed over “parental responsibility”?  Does his father still pay child support?  Is your husband adopting him? 

It all gets a bit complicated.  And trust me, they definitely don’t take the mothers word for it.  A friend’s ex is self employed and claims he doesn’t have enough earnings to pay CSA.  Yet just bought a new £100k Range Rover.  Unfortunately the system here sucks.  There are no winners.  The kids affected are definitely being let down by the systems here.

Basically it all comes down to parental responsibility.

Your son from a previous relationship who isn’t showing in the system....  has his biological father handed over “parental responsibility”?  Does his father still pay child support?  Is your husband adopting him? 

It all gets a bit complicated.  And trust me, they definitely don’t take the mothers word for it.  A friend’s ex is self employed and claims he doesn’t have enough earnings to pay CSA.  Yet just bought a new £100k Range Rover.  Unfortunately the system here sucks.  There are no winners.  The kids affected are definitely being let down by the systems here.

No none of the above applies to my son. I'm the mother but he lives with us and we take care of him.

Well we asked the CSA rep what would happen if she doesn't agree with what we said and he said nothing we would have to go and get a court order.

Until then we pay her almost £200 more because she lied, she has put on the form that we don't take care of them (the step kids). Yet we have a room for them, clothes, their gaming system is here at our home for when they come on weekends and school holidays.

Trust me we have hit a brick wall. They said we needed to serve her a letter to arrange custody and she has dodged our letters. How can this really be allowed to happen by just 1 person word. No investigation, nothing.

Thanks for all your help though.

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Did they mean child benefit? Contact the child benefit office to see if your husband can claim for your non-uk son.

I haven’t been able to tell if a child subject to immigration rules can be claimed for - but they will know. You could also ask that you don’t receive the actual payment for cb for your son, but signing him up should register him at your address if they say you can.


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Did they mean child benefit? Contact the child benefit office to see if your husband can claim for your non-uk son.

I haven’t been able to tell if a child subject to immigration rules can be claimed for - but they will know. You could also ask that you don’t receive the actual payment for cb for your son, but signing him up should register him at your address if they say you can.


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Okay will do. Both our kids are subject to immigration rules. Its just that my daughter belongs to my husband, and seems he can claim stuff for her, over my son.

I will call and ask and see if we get anywhere with this.

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Use this opportunity to also have a proper custody order in place.  Get what you need as well.  Set days, exactly what the CSA will pay for (uniforms, after school activities, school trips, etc). Also ensure you are having proper contact rights with your step child.  No more flexibility (unless mutually beneficial, of course), you get holidays too, etc. 

I’d approach from a place of calm, cool, collected and ensure your family “wins” as much as her.  But make sure the real winner is the child that’s being pulled between households that are in a fallout. You’ve got this mama!

And Kate’s suggestion is perfect.

Use this opportunity to also have a proper custody order in place.  Get what you need as well.  Set days, exactly what the CSA will pay for (uniforms, after school activities, school trips, etc). Also ensure you are having proper contact rights with your step child.  No more flexibility (unless mutually beneficial, of course), you get holidays too, etc. 

I’d approach from a place of calm, cool, collected and ensure your family “wins” as much as her.  But make sure the real winner is the child that’s being pulled between households that are in a fallout. You’ve got this mama!

And Kate’s suggestion is perfect.

I have been saying this for years but my husband wanted to be amicable and flexible, which really doesn't work when the other person isn't rational.

This is all happening because we refused to pay for a £140 coat, a week after we paid her child support. At this point its clear the CSA isn't being used on the children, as the eldest decided to steal from her because she didn't give him any lunch money, (it's  a hot mess).

Hopefully someone will be able to help us soon. We have hired a barrister as well, as we figure out we would not be able to do this ourselves, we keep hitting brick walls.

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Did they mean child benefit? Contact the child benefit office to see if your husband can claim for your non-uk son.

I haven’t been able to tell if a child subject to immigration rules can be claimed for - but they will know.

HMRC are not immigration experts and they will not know. There have been lots of posts where a visa has been refused because they took Child Benefit, or they had to quickly repay all the benefit money when they realised they should not have taken this benefit to get another visa. Usually this is because they were told about Child Benefit at the hospital after the birth and thought they couild claim this benefit too, even though it is a Public Fund. 

Child Benefit is remaining with HMRC because it is easy for them to check the earnings of a parent as this benefit has an earning cap. They can also check if the parent has completed an SA form, even if they are PAYE; issue fines if they had not; check their RTI system. They do run sweeps for the DWP and UKVI.

The Tax Credit benefits that HMRC deal with for existing claimants, are two of the low income benefits being replaced by Universal Credit and the DWP will handle all UC claims (instead of HMRC and all the councils in the country).

Okay will do. Both our kids are subject to immigration rules. Its just that my daughter belongs to my husband, and seems he can claim stuff for her, over my son.

I will call and ask and see if we get anywhere with this.

Will the CSA take your child's NHS, school records, visa?


My child is a person subject to immigration control
https://www.turn2us.org.uk/Benefit-guides/Nationals-of-non-European-Economic-Area-(EEA)-coun/My-child-is-a-person-subject-to-immigration-contro


EDIT
AND
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/immigration/benefits-services-and-your-immigration-status/are-you-subject-to-immigration-control/