The first 25k is only disregarded if you do not decrease your income after the initial award of the year is sent (TC602a). If you have decreased your income then any change after this can have an effect on the value of tax credits you receive. If they have stopped your tax credits to recover the overpayment. As long as your award is higher than the family element you can ask for an in year restriction to be placed. This will normaly allow for a % of the overpayment to be recovered rather than the full value. However if you have already received more this year than what your total award should have been it may be unlikely for you to recieve anything further.

You can request working tax credits to be paid either weekly or every 4 weeks

I was trawling through the guidance from the border agency to who would have residency. It is really very complicated. Section 3(1) applications - children born in the United Kingdom to parents who are not settled in the United Kingdom and are not British citizens Registration in this category will be at our discretion, if we believe it is reasonable under the circumstances and will be under section 3(1) of the British Nationality Act 1981. There are no formal requirements the child needs to meet providing they are under 18 at the time of application and are of good character if they are over 10 years of age. The application should be accompanied by as much evidence as possible to show us why the child should be registered as a British citizen. this part was about as close i could come to her situation. From what i have read it would seem that she can apply for indefinite right to remain but only if she has entered the country legally and is still remaining here legally at the moment. i don't think its going to be a quick decision anyway. My advice would be to call 0845 010 5200 (home office) which is for enquiries for British citzenship and right to abode. Or go through the web site for more info UK Border Agency | British citizenship Obtaining the Habitual Resident status may be difficult for her to obtain as she is homeless at present. As an A8 national she also has to prove that she will not be a burden to public funds. As she is not working this may not be possible. With the benefits coming to an end it sounds like her extended right to reside is about to expire. From what i have read its not painting a good picture for her. But i'm no expert, i hope the Welfare rights guys can give some good news.

The form to dispute the overpayment is called TC846. COP26 is a leaflet along the lines of "what if we have paid you to much tax credits"

If she gets child benefit sorted and as long as she has a national insurance number her claim for child tax credits will go through quickly. If she has not been allocated a NI number yet she can still make a claim for child tax credits. They will organise with DWP to get a face to face interview set up to get it allocated. However, that will only happen if she has right to reside in the UK. Don't quote me on it, but the fact that her child was born in the Uk, i believe now gives her a case for the right to reside.

For a child tax credit only claim you would need to be earning around 20k for it to effect the value of your child tax credits. So don't worry about taking the job.

The overpayment of tax credits will be due to late notification of the house hold breakdown (going from single to joint claim or joint to joint). Tax credits are calculated on a daily basis, therefore for every day you recieve money you are not entitled to you have to pay it back. However, the new claim can then be backdated to the day after the old claim ended. So you should receive the money back again. However...again. If your new circumstances mean that your new entitlement is less in your new claim then unfortunately you will be out of pocket. The child turning one will not have had a bearing on the overpayment as the tax credit system already calculated this in the original payment schedule. Also if she was with a previous partner, when the overpayment was acrued, then this partner is also liable for the overpayment. The tax credit office normally look for a 50% split on repayment, unless you agree to a different level between you.

Hi Sar2004 Don't be concerned by the time it is taking them to reply to it. Unfortunately due to cuts in HM treasury spending HMRC have 150,000 less staff than they did 5 years ago. So... it takes a lot longer than normal to do most things. Even contacting them directly on the phone can take about 2 weeks for things to come out. By sending mail it will go to a central post room, then forwarded on to the appropriate section so it will certainly take a few weeks. I think this may be the link that Shoelover was refering to http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/leaflets/how-hmrc-handle-txcr-opay.pdf Its just an example of the income and expenditure sheet. But at least it gives and idea of what you will need to collect together.

From a tax credits point of view, make an application. call them on 0845 3003900 and get them to go through an eligibility calculation and get a claim form sent out. You may not be able to claim until the child is born, but then you should expect a payment in excess of £100 a week for CTC and WTC, probably around £130 of so depending on your circumstances. WTC may be payable now depending on your normal working hours and previous year income

A couple of points to hopefully put your mind at rest. You mentioned that you sent a letter to the Tc office about your personal circumstances in relation to the situation. The TC office will not share that info with your Ex even if he submits a SAR request. The details contained have nothing to do with him. The TC office will not generally go down the fraud route with your case. They will simply look apon it as an overpayment. Even if the investigation team (compliance ) look into it. They are simply looking for return of the tax payers money. If you have been honest with the office over your situation and are willing to repay....even if it is only a token amount per week/month they will accept this. This will also have no impact on any single claim you make afterwards as well. If you have a copy of your "notice to pay" letter that would be issued when they are looking for recovery of the overpayment. There is a number on it for the "payments helpline", if memory serves it is 0845 302 1429..but double check that. That is the debt recovery office. If you call them they can help you to complete an income and expenditure form on the telephone. Remember the tax credit office will not put you in a worse financial situation just to recovery an overpayment. As long as you are willing to make the effort to repay they will help you set that up.

Remember if you are in financial trouble you can get an emergency payment from your local tax office. Normally approved by the manager there. Its normally about £50. But if your stuck it might help

Mikey's spot on with the tax credit advice. You will get both the IS and CTC. Just a reminder as i saw you were moving in together. remember to notify IS that you are now a couple living together and make sure you put both your names down on the tax credit claim.

With the introduction of ESA replacing IB(short term) in respect of a self employed person claiming WTC. The 26 week rule still applies. He will be able to continue claiming the WTC period as long as he has a claim running for ESA. Again i would stress, the longest he can continue to claim the WTC without working is still 26weeks, regardless if he continued on ESA. You also do not have to contact the helpline to advise them of this during the 26 week period. As the advisors on the helpline will not update anything until the 26 weeks pass and will ask you to call back at this point. If you don't call after the 26week passes you will start accrueing an overpayment that will be recovered by cross year recovery against any CTC you have.

The m1 they should have sent should mean that you do not have to reapply again. The M1 team will...if they can. Put the claim back into payment. You can make a complaint to the tax credit processing office. As it seems to be a processing error, my advice would be to contact the tax credit helpline and ask for the address for making a complaint against the processing team. The helpline can log a complaint for you, but that means having to go through a longer process. Agent--->Team Leader---->Complaints manager (who will nopt be able to deal with it and need to pass it on to the processing team. The complainst manager can take up to 15 days to do this) Best advice is to get the address and write to them yourself. If you are unhappy with the response you get you can then go to the Ombudsman.

As MIKEY DABODEE correctly stated you can claim WTC for 26 weeks while being sick. However you will have to be in receipt of SSP or equivalent during this period.