hi everyone, I will try to explain my situation as simple as I can, apologise if the story is too long... first, a year and a half ago I moved home and forgot to tell hmrc straight away, I was remindeed by the tx credits renewal packs that were sent out to my friends and gave them a call straight away and explained the situation. At the time the advisor was very understanding and we did the changes over the phone. I asked her if I needed to call child benefit as well and she told me NO, records would be updated for both offices. Since then I have been getting letters from hmrc normally, child tax credits and child trust fund as well. I never thought to doubt for a moment that all was all right. However, last month I accidntally noticed my child benefit payments had stopped. I rarely go out looking for the payments unless there is a problem, have all my bills on direct debit etc, so pay little attention to my bank statement. turns out the last payment was on the 29th of may 2012. I first contacted the office online as getting through the phone was taking ages. Few days later I got an email from them telling me my payments had been stopped due to a letter that I did not respond to and Id have to start a new claim. not happy with that short response I emailed back but never got any more contact. so yesterday I called the office. the advisor asked for my details to confirm my identity, there and then he assured me he had my correct address in hands, the present one. So I briefly told him my story, he kept in silence as I talked and when I finished only told me "well there is nothing else you can do apart from starting a new claim". I asked to be informed of when they sent me any correspondence as for what i can see they have my correct adress so it all sounds like a mistake to me. he said he cant tell me when because the letter could have been sent from any hmrc office, to wich i replied thats impossible, I had ust gotten ff thephone with tax credits office to make sure all was right there. he told me many things could have happened including a mistake from the post man. I said "what????" he said, yes, you never know the postman could have dropped your letters in another house, I said then how does that make the whole thing my fault? and how many letter were sent out until ending on my benefit being stopped that the postman delivered wrong? The advisor kept telling me in a ery rude mannner that hes wasnt saying it was no one fault but that there was nothing else he could do, trying to get me off the phone. I insisted for an explanation though. I asked him for a bit of understanding from his side to my question... how is it if they have my present adress my benefit could have been stopped over lack of response from my part???? if I never got any letters from them? he advisors, shckingly, asked me how did I know I did not ge any letters? I said to him he must have been joking there, because, obviously, I live in this house and get all the letter, and there wasnt one from child benefits. He went on to say about postman mistake and taht perhaps the offices were late on communicating the address change between them but there was no way we could know what happened. i asked further questions, like, if the office does not keep records of all mail sent out or when the address change in his system took place, that sure would have been recorded, to all he replied he did not know the information and few times told me "i dont understand what you want from me". Leaving aside the poor tratment I got over the phone yesterday, I also did not get an answer to my problem. I told him I believe my payments shoud be backdated to when they stopped because this was clearly a "postman mistake" or miscommunication within the department, wich is a bit strange since at the end of the day, they were communicated of my new address and got all my information correctly. Overall, I told him, there is no explanation or reason of why my payments woud have been stopped, and he could not tell me more than I did not reply to mail sent out to me. wich I believe is no good enough excuse, since they have my present address and sure would have taken more than one lettter missed for the to stop it all together, so its also hard to believe the "postman mistake" theory. after about half an hour on the phone with the man, I told him I would not get off the phone until he would give me more than "nothing else I can do", because I cant accept this type of treatment and unfair decision, he told me in a very spiteful manner he had already told me wha to do minutes ago, wich he had not, and he would pass my complaint to head office. I was shocked, never before I had seen such rudeness and lack of empathy from a HMRC advisor on the phone, any other call I had made before was spotlessly dealt with and politeness and professionalism always there, not to fault!!! I do not know what to do next and how to act. Another hour call like that and another advisor playing like that to me on the phone, its very frustrating any help will be very much appreciated!!

Hello everyone. I was wondering if anyone can give us any advice on child tax credit overpayment. I am from Pakistan and my wife is British. My case was in the home office for around 2 years and got my residence permit in June 2011. I applied for national insurance number and got it 31 October 2011. My wife and I got married in 2005 but due to me not having any paper work and due to problem with money we did not apply for my immigration papers till 2007. Because of all that my wife was receiving tax credit under single person. As my immigration papers went in the home office. My wife told tax credit on 30th march 2007 that she was wanted to change her single claim to joint claim but the problem was that they were asking for my national insurance number which i didn't had. In the end wife spoke to some kind of manager at tax credit office over the phone who advised that the only way to get tax credit is for her to claim as a single parent. As she was advised by someone at the tax credit office, my wife again made a claim under single parent so she can start receiving the money as the money was stopped on the joint claim as we could not provide tax credit with my NI number. On 31 October I received my NI number. As my wife was and still suffering from depression and other health problems we decided that all the benefits would change under my name. As we thought the tax credit kind of knew that i was living over here, we left the tax credits till last and changed the income support and housing benefits under my name first. We also knew that we could have claimed more under a joint claim but that would have meant everything stopped at once and we would have no money to live on hence we thought that we would take less money rather than no money. In may 2013 we received a letter from tax credit telling us that we have been Over paid from 31 October 2011 to January 2012. This was the period from which i got my NI number till the date we applied for the tax credit under joint claim. We appealed against the decision which was turned down. We than tried to involve our MP who wrote the letter to tax credit and received the reply today saying that the overpayment is still due. Our MP asked them to apply the "NOTIONAL ENTITLEMENT" which was turned down as well. It seems that the advice the wife was given about claiming as a single parent was under the table and the tax credit has totally denied any kind of advice given to my wife. However she must repay the overpayment of £2271.87, which occurred due to delay in her reporting her correct circumstances after 31 October 2011. "In certain circumstances, we can apply 'Notional entitlement' where a customer has made a claim in the wrong capacity. However Mrs *****'s overpayment does not meet the criteria for Notional entitlement. Therefore, we are right to ask her to repay the overment." From what i read over the Internet i thought Notional entitlement was applied as long as you have not gained from the situation, In our case we did not gain anything from claiming as a single person but actually lost money as we would be entitled to more under a joint claim. I was wondering if anyone can help us and give us some advice. I do apologize for the long post and would be grateful if anyone can help us. Thanks.

Good afternoon, We're having some problems finding education for my partner's son. He was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago and thankfully is ok now and has overcome it but has anxiety and agoraphobia. He went from a normal child to an anxious terrified child in a few years. He doesn't leave the house without his mother and won't go anywhere with lots of people. He waited 2 years just for an assessment for this but is now on a waiting list for counselling and support. He has had 'hospital schooling' from home for the past few years but this has now ended. He only had 5 hours a week so did 2 GCSEs. The school said they can't offer him anything. We can't seem to find any education for him. The problem is we also can't afford to lose out on the tax credits because we're struggling at the moment. I also don't want him becoming just a statistic sitting at home doing nothing. Does anybody have any ideas on what we can do with him but also receive the tax credits? It sounds terrible but we really can't afford to live without that. I think he has to be in 'further education' and it must be full time? Is this correct? Is there anything home based that would fit this criteria? Thank you

Hi, I have received a letter from from hmrc dated 8th July 2013 saying that I had been overpaid £1394.76 in child tax credits. I will start from the beginning ... my boyfriend had been made unemployed back on the 24th February 2013, I wrote a letter to hmrc the next day explaining my boyfriend had lost his job and sent it away, thinking that they would adjust my benefits accordingly as that is their job :{ I never received any communication from them until my tax renewal pack came through and I sent it away. My benefits never changed, I was still receiving child tax credit but never thought anything of it as I had told them of my boyfriends Change of circumstances and thought I was entitled to it. In the meantime, my boyfriend got another job and started on the 6th of May, I wrote a letter to hmrc again informing them of his new job and sent it away..or so I thought I had, my gran had died in between this time and I was quite depressed and only found the letter I was supposed to send away 2 days ago!!!I know that you have up to a month to declare a change in circumstances and its obviously past that now, what can I do? I also don't understand why I have been overpaid in child tax credits when I sent the letter away to declare him losing his job, they have obviously received it now as I have the letter stating that I have been overpaid?I don't know if my letter was lost in the post and delivered late. I didn't keep . A copy of the letter, the only proof I have is that I date all my letters when I write them which will probably count for nothing to make matters worse my 3 year old son is in private nursery and starts going to full days in August, he gets sop many free hours a week but it still adds up to £245a a month and that's including funding from my local council. I can't get a place for him in a normal nursery as there are no spaces and I don't want to disturb him as he has settled in there so well. Hmrc have stopped all my payments and I currently get nothing except £20 child benefit so I am stuck with , an expensive nursery fee each month, rent, gas , electric, food it's just not practical!I currently have £2 to my name and my partner has £30 after we have paid everything. We both also have debt which we are trying to pay and we have had to cancel making payments for now which means interest will start to pile on again. I don't no what to do. I work 16 hours a week and make £500 a month and my partner works 40 hours a week earning £989 a month, between rent, nursery fees and gas and electric, council tax, food, we are left with nothing I'm starting to get too stressed where I can't eat. Any advice would be appreciated?

Apologies if I get mixed up but im in a bit of a panic with a letter I received yesterday and am worried about what to do, basically the HMRC have sent me a letter asking for me to repay an overpayment of child tax credits which were paid whilst I was married 8 years ago!!. My then wife claimed for my two step children, and a letter has been sent asking me to payback £1300 approximately, it says that this can be paid back over 12 months!!. 8 years ago I was in full time employment as a Staff nurse and now and for the past 5 years I have been on incapacity benefit and now ESA due to a long period of ill health and not been able to work, I have no hope of paying 1300 back in twelve months, never mind 24 months as I only get £90 a week to live on. I haven't phoned them yet as i'm scared of doing so. apparently the debt is for an overpayment they made ( which if memory serves the did to many folks at that period due to an admin error ), it was 8 years ago, we only claimed tax credits for 11 months the length of our marriage, thanks will they accept a payment in line with what i get each week ie, £5 or so as I have no spare cash as it is.

Last year between Sept/Oct we received a letter from HMRC saying we have been overpaid CTC because we hadn't told them our son had left further education. We told them in July he had left college, but they said they couldn't do anything to change our claim until September and we'd have to call back then, but a note would be made re the phonecall. We left it at that. Rang them in September to tell them again as advised and referred to our earlier call in July. Advisor said she couldn't find any notes re this call and we would have to repay the overpayment. We told Child Benefit of the change in July and they altered our award straight away wihtout any problems. We appealed the decision and heard nothing until Jan 2013 when we had a letter saying they have our appeal and would write to us with a decision. The decision was they were right and we were wrong as we had not told them about the change. We sent 2 letters in June with copies of our phone bills for June and Septemeber 2012 showing 3 calls to HMRC and a further letter this month. So far we have not received any reply. Does HMRC have a policy by which they should have to reply to customers letters within a certain timescale, as does the DWP? :???:

Hello, all, I'm asking for a good friend who doesn't have internet access. Due to a series of misfortunes (she is a decent person who works hard) my friend got into debt. Her young child is disabled and they have recently been awarded DLA. As the DLA has been awarded for the child, I thought that dcas have no right to make a claim (almost wrote 'clam' - Freudian thinking? ) on the DLA. That she can offer token payments as other than the DLA she is skint. I've also told her that if any of them come knocking not to answer the door, as only the postman and someone asking for directions are allowed on her property. Many thanks for any assistance. Cheers, Rhys

Sorry if im in the wrong forum, I searched but was not sure were to post, so thought best here as it local authority. I took my children out of school on Wednesday, to go and visit a very close immediate family member recovering from cancer! I did give the school a letter (the school are doing a trial run over the new law about unauthorised school leaves for days and holidays) so i completed the form as requested and gave it the Tuesday as I was told to hand it in then. Wednesday comes and we are on a long public transport journey to see the family member, when at 12.00,we get a call to cancel as they had took a turn, and were not feeling to well so said to arrange another day. I okied this, but was gutted as we had spent 4 hours already on the train, so decided to make the most of the day and go walking around the area we were at. We wondered round the area a bit, and purchased a new vehicle we had no intention of doing this but it was a good offer and decided why not. (daft but was cheap and we needed one, have another thread on here about a vehicle we just returned). On Friday (Thursday school closed due to strike, only got a weeks notice!) one of my children said that the head teacher and there teacher questioned as to why they took a school day off, to go on a day trip when they should be learning. My child said a letter was handed in and told them what had happened, the teacher then said that they never got he letter, but i do know they did as I personally handed it to them. What i don't like is they question my child who is 8 years old but is being looked into for development delay problems and so far being assessed as a child with the mental age of a 4-5 year old, so he does not remember things very well, so even though he knew we were going to see this family member he didn't mention the events that happened. I am angry about this as the school know about my childs problem and knew what we were doing as I had spoke to them about it everyday so they were aware! I feel they have over stepped the line to make us out to be liars, I have never allowed my children to stay off unless ill, we have never had a holiday during school term they have very good attendance marks as well.

Hi everyone, hoping for some preemptive advice. My 15 year old son is Autistic, Dyspraxic with associated conditions. He has been in receipt of DLA HRC and LRM for 10 years. We have received the new adult form as he turns 16 in August. I have original dx letters and reports from 2008 (no reports since, but he still has OT and S&LT weekly, within his special school as set out in his SEN and also outside of school.), and letters from the school sen nurse, his OT and hopefully, the S&LT. He has a current Statement which outlines his difficulties and is in depth. Our GP is aware of his condition and care needs and will respond stating these, if asked. My son is very bright educationally, he has an amazing vocab and has self taught guitar and drums. It's his social skills, sense of danger, road sense and poor sleeping pattern that set him apart from his peers. He cannot leave the house independently (and indeed prefers not to go out at all) and still needs help with many things, due to poor fine motor control. I have to cut his food, tie laces and wash his hair etc. I have filled in the form very thoroughly, despite not being familiar with the adult form and I am asking to be his appointee due to him not having any idea about money, and also not being able to write adequately to fill in forms etc. He is happy for me to continue doing this when he turns 16. I also have a letter from the OT confirming his lack of knowledge regarding these areas. My main worry is that with all of the changes, his claim will be refused. It's not so much the loss of the extra money that worries me, rather, what will happen to him if they decide he is no longer eligible? If I am no longer receiving a carer's allowance, I will have no choice but to find work (his father is deceased.) and I am so scared for his safety if that happens. Just because they may decide he does not need that supervision, it will not mean that he actually doesn't. What if he leaves the house and gets hit by a car, gets lost, or gets bullied etc? I am literally terrified. He is due to leave his special school this year and start at college with learning support in September. The college is 4 miles from our house and he has to travel across the city to get there. I have already decided that I would of course appeal, and that has made me feel a little better, but I just had another worry pop up.. Would I be able to appeal at the tribunal on his behalf or would they expect him to do it? He just wouldn't be able to cope in that setting. I hadn't even considered that, so now i'm unsure if an appeal would even be an option. Does anyone have any advice for me please?

Hello, I would be very appreciative for any help or direction into a recent debt I've just received. Last Thursday I had a letter from 'advantis' regarding a debt to HMRC for £8347 of which I have no previous correspondence or information. After I picked myself up off the floor I rang the company immediately and was basically told I had over-payments totaling the amount above from 2004. I asked them to allow me time to contact HMRC and see if this is a mistake and I would obviously call them back. Firstly, I'm long term unemployed with no savings currently living at fathers until I can find new accommodation. I have no assets and had to sell my previous home due to debts (cleared) after divorce. I am contacting the HMRC Mon morning to start an appeal process (If that's possible) and pray they have made some kind of mistake. I will also make an apt with the local CAB so I can actually talk face to face with someone or maybe approach a Solicitor. Whilst this process begins I would appreciate and welcome any advice you could suggest, I'm extremely worried the DCA will try to levy my debt against my fathers home just because I'm living there? If the debt stands what help can I get managing it ? Thank you for your time and any assistance you can offer.

Can anyone point me to the government literature where it says you can claim CTC for a child educated abroad if the child returns to the UK in the summer holidays. Thanks.

My son carries dual US/UK citizenship however he is not allowed to enter theUS on his UK passport. My son's US passport has expired; he has spentevery summer of his life since birth in the US. He is now 10. His father &I are divorced but the custody issue was not dealt with in the divorce. In order to get my son's US passport renewed both parents have to attend theUS embassy in person with the child. I asked my son's father back in January 2013,to go with my son & I to apply for the passport, he did not & has not responded. US rules state as follows; Important Notice: the written consent from the non-applying parent that accompanies an application for a new passport must be less than 3 months old. If not available, you will be required to furnish evidence of the appearing parent's sole authority to apply for the passport in the form of one of the following: Consular Report of Birth Abroad (Form FS-240) or Certification of Birth Abroad (Form DS-1350) listing only applying parent; Child's birth certificate listing only applicant parent; Adoption decree (if applying parent is sole adopting parent); Court Order granting sole custody to the applying parent (i.e the absent parent has no access to the child. Child's travel must not be restricted by that order; Judicial declaration of incompetence of non-applying parent; or Death certificate of non-applying parent Can someone please advise me if the court can force my ex to go to theembassy with my son & I or can I can secure sole custody? My son requiresthe passport by Early July 2013. Can I make an application for a Special Issue Order to get my ex to goto the embassy? I cannot afford to engage a solicitor. I'd be gratefulfor any advice. Thanks

Hi, my daughter (19, and at college) moved out last Tuesday - I started to notify everyone today (emailed Child Benefit & Local Council & tried unsuccessfully to get through the Tax Credits). Whilst doing my 'domestic admin' I noticed on my online bank account that CB had gone in on the 4th but for 3 Weeks and not 4 weeks amount. I work fulltime so don't claim housing or anything like that. Just seems odd re the underpayment, I only emailed them today to advise that she moved out on the 5th. Is it possible that my daughter has claimed something in her own right and told them before me? (she was still coming home up until Tuesday albeit usual coming home late etc) Worried about this aswell as her as she seems to have gone a bit 'off the rails' lately and is very secrective (feels like I am the enemy)

i Dont know if anyone can help here. I have been searching the internet but cannot find any answer. our son recently died and im having a hard time finding the account provider of his CTF to close the account. We never used the voucher ourselves and we did recieve a letter stating that the £250 had been automatically put into an account by the government but we cannot find this letter anywhere. There is a helpline number that is now closed that says to go to the GOV website but there is no help on there whatsoever. Has anyone else ever had this problem and recovered the account? thanks in advance

Hello, I am writing here for some advice on behalf of my sister who is struggling financially. She is employed through her ex partner's company and receives £2000 per month. She is separated from her ex and is the primary carer for their 7 year old daughter. The mortgage is £1300 per month and so once bills and council tax are also taken off, she has approx £200 month left for food. She is getting into big debt. When they first separated, she applied for Child tax credits stating that she was earning £24000 per annum (she timesed £2000 x 12 months). However, she was concerned that she wasn't filling out the form correctly as she didn't know if this was in the form of dividends, whether it was a gross or net wage, and so she asked her ex's accountants to fill out the form for her. They put down that her gross annual salary was combined of a personal allowance of £7000 and dividends worth £31000 which meant that she had to repay the previous years allowance and is scared of contacting them again, even though she is on the breadline. Ultimately, is she entitled to Child Tax credits? Many thanks for any advice.

4 Months ago, my wife and I split. I had been subject to years and financial, emotional and physical abuse, so my head wasn't in the best place, I wasnt aware of what benifits etc were being claimed , I had a budget given to me of £5 per week and that was it as far I knew anything about money, I worked and earned good money but never saw it, my ex didnt work and controlled everything. One of our children elected to come and live with me at the time of the split. My ex wife , then started throwing loads of disgusting ( and proven , false) allegations around , further adding to the pressure I was under. When we left, we were not permitted to take anything with us, we had to start all over again. In Nov, 3 weeks after the split, once I had started to get us both back on our feet, I submitted a claim for Child Benefit and child tax. Last week I received a letter saying that my ex had not informed HMRC of a change and had still been claiming for Child Benifit from Oct until dec 24th, for the child that was no longer living with her. I asked if there was a way I can claim this money back, as I had to buy a whole new wardrobe for our child (no goods have been returned to date and probs would no longer fit anyway) and I had been feeding etc our child since Oct but HMRC didn't seem too bothered about this and said because my ex didnt tell them , it was tough, isnt this benefit fraud ? not declaring a change ? I have police/solicitors/cafcass reports all detailing that we both left in Oct, is there anyway I can claim the Child Benefit for the child that lived me since Oct or does my ex get to keep it all because she didnt tell them ? I assume Child Tax will be the same but I have not yet heard from them, Thanks Ppl.

Hi folks CSA has been in touch and have been given the figures etc on what to pay In regards to amounts, If the Ex who is now engaged (proof in paper) is living with the guy and he has a very successful buildings company Should my payments stay the same even knowing this information ? or would they lower knowing that she is with a new guy earning loads ? Thanks all

the mother of my unborn daughter has insisted that she wants no child support from me. to cut a long story short, i am what you would call a sperm donor. is it possible to get a legally binding contract stating this? my biggest concern is not giving any child support as agreed with her, only to get a letter from the CSA if she changes her mind. Bruce

Hi, I phoned the Child tax helpline today to make the following changes to my claim, Childcare costs to be reduced to nil as no longer paying childcare Change address I was told that I couldn't make the changes as the system wouldn't allow them to as my claim had been passed to another team as a letter had been sent out to me. I didn't receive the letter and we are due to move house tomorrow which is why I was calling to update my claim. They gave me a number which I called and they are checking my childcare payments. I have to admit I stopped paying childcare at the beginning of September, but didn't tell them until I called today and spoke to the compliance team. I am really worried as I have read on the internet that you can go to jail for overpayments, is this true? I have never done this before and I have certainly learn't my lesson. The person I spoke to was really nice and just said that I must keep them informed. She also phoned the previous childcare provider who confirmed that I paid up to the end of Sept,but I am still nervous. Has anyone been in a similar situation. Thanks

my son aged 17 left college for no good reason last november, how long can child benefit be claimed after the date he left and should they be informed straight away?

Hello, apologies if I'm posting in the wrong place This morning my bank took 88.00 out of my 102.00 child tax credits. Can they do this? I know at least 2 of these 8.00 charges are for my loan payment to them which was arranged over the phone to go out on a Saturday as that's when money goes in. They agreed this on the phone and then we noticed it was attempting to go out on Fridays. I rang them again and they said they "didn't do Saturdays" so had made it Friday instead. Which was useless as I had explained on the phone, Saturday is the only day i have guaranteed money. So we arranged for it to go out on Mondays, as by Friday the account is usually empty. I now have 20.00 for food/electric over xmas, never mind the fact they will attempt to take their 25.00 loan payment on Monday... Thanks for any help!

I have been looking after my 16 month old grandson for 7 months due to my daughter having housing issues and the Social Services placed him officially into my care. I have been reciving child TC since July but they sent me and my daughter a form in october asking who should carry on receiving them - my daughter completed her's but I put mine in a drawer until after a social services meeting to see if they were letting my daughte rhave the baby back as she wanted - and when. They decided she could have him back just before christmas this year then my TC stopped for grandson - when I rang they said it was because I never sent the form in and I should appeal I then found the form, completed it and got a letter from social worker to support that I have had my grandson since july (the HMRC also say I owe them the TC from July as I never had my GS living with me) I explained that I never had time to appeal as my GS would be going back to his mother in a couple of weeks, aslo I have not had a letter from them confirming this decision I now have had 3 weeks with no TC and my husband only received pension credit and I still ahve to buy my GS clothes, nappies, food and take him weekends to his mum Is there anything i can do to reverse this stupid decision - just by forgetting to complete a form, the government now has my GS money that he is entitled to?

A friend has 7 year old twins. One of them is deaf and wears hearing aids. The children in his class are pulling them out and breaking them. He can't hear without them. She's spoken to his teacher who has said "we can't watch 35 children at the same." His aids have been sent off to get fixed and he has nothing in the meantime. He will struggle in the meantime. He's not profoundly deaf and receives little / no help and won't receive help whilst the aids are being fixed. The teacher replied that as children who are in year 2, (6 & 7 year olds) they should be taking responsibility for themselves. School claim he doesn't have a problem as he lip reads. She's rung the school and is hoping to speak to the head later. What are her options, please? He can't reach his full potential because the other children are pulling out his hearing aids, meaning he can't hear properly. I have told her to mention the Equalities Act - he can't reach his potential due to the lack of support.

Hi My girlfriend and I have been separated for approx. 3 years. I left the family home and have been living with a friend since. During that time she has been claiming child tax credit and is claiming is as a single parent. She received a letter the other day from the tax office saying that they have evidence that suggests that I am still living with her and why is she not claiming as a couple. Also, threatening all sorts of action. The problem is that since I moved out I have not changed any of my details over to my new address. The house where my ex lives is legally mine but I let her stay there as she was looking after our son. We also have a decent relationship so I always pick up my mail from there when I go to see my son. I still pay the mortgage, and some bills. However, I have nothing to say that I have been living with my friend during this time, only mine and his word for it. As she uses tokens for her utilities, we didn't even change the name on the elec/gas bills etc so its all still in my name. My ex is frantic with worry now as they are talking about fines and even worse. Any advice would be most welcome. Thanks Craig

hi everyone, i have a question about child tax credits. from what i can see on the internet, a family can be abroad for upto 8 weeks and continue to receive child tax credits. my question is this: is that eight weeks per tax year, or is it eight weeks per trip. i.e. if they timed it near the end of one tax year, could they be abroad for upto 16 weeks in one go (by making their single trip abroad overlap two tax years) and still continue to get child tax credits payments for 16 weeks? thanks for that