Income Support help

[Zara33]

Well I think your appeal will go well and you will win

 

Arrears of CSA maintenance should not be taken into account against your Income Support, I have checked this with a DM at our office.

 

But after April I think its the 12th anyway this will make no difference as all maintenance is to be disregarded so you can make a rapaid reclaim to Income Support.

Good luck

I appreciate all your help Mikey thank you.

Now to sort out housing benefit and council tax benefit as the DWP informed them I am no longer entitled to Income support oh the joys!

[MIKEY DABODEE]

you should be entitled to HB and CTB just have to fill in the forms for income based

I am so annoyed about them taking arrears of CSA into account its no wonder customers get so mad

We see lots of cases like yours with arrears of CSA and they are still live in payment

Hope you do win your appeal be surprised if you dont

[Zara33]

Nice try JCP at the blackmailing, not gonna work!

 

Just had a call from the BDC to ask why I'm appealing the decision told them that arrears from child support shouldn't be taken into account which they weren't in July and August but were in December. They say they have looked over my appeal and they are still not going to change their decision, she openly admits they made a mistake in July and August and if I go to appeal they will request this paid back, but if I let things drop now and not go to appeal they will forget about the overpayment pmsl! That's good of them.

 

Told her just to carry on with my appeal thanks

[MIKEY DABODEE]

Sounds not right, they always put everything about an appeal in writing

mmm

 

strange we are still disregarding maintenance arrears and come April 12th all of it . Remember to make your new claim

[Zara33]

:eek::eek:

 

It get's worse before it get better right Saga update!

 

Had to do a rapid reclaim for Income Support as yes you guessed it child support failed again. Anyway to the point.

 

Apparently in yonder years gone by about 2002 you got an extra premium with your Carers' allowance if the person you were caring for was a child (news to me).

 

Since my rapid reclaim has been processed they have calculated my income from carers' as £63.10 an extra £8.20 from the normal carers' amount of £53.10 which now equates that my Income support entitlement is £31.80 per week not £40.70 per week that they have been paying me for before my claim was stopped because of child support payments. So since 2002 it appears Income support have been overpaying me and again they want this money back.

 

I have just been on the phone to the Carers' department and the lady I spoke to has said Income support have always been aware there has been this extra allowance paid on top of my Carers allowance, so why up until I have had to do a rapid reclaim was this never picked up?

 

When they tell you on the phone that an overpayment must be paid back I should expect a letter to confirm this right? Completely bricking it now as a eight year overpayment of IS is going to be sh*tloads but I never knew about the extra allowance from Carers' allowance and it appears up until now neither did the team doing my Income support.

 

I can't afford to pay back 8 years worth of money, I might aswell be dead because all these bloody overpayments due to child support and extra allowances are driving me up the bloody twist.

[MIKEY DABODEE]

:eek::eek:

 

It get's worse before it get better right Saga update!

 

Had to do a rapid reclaim for Income Support as yes you guessed it child support failed again. Anyway to the point.

 

Apparently in yonder years gone by about 2002 you got an extra premium with your Carers' allowance if the person you were caring for was a child (news to me).

 

Since my rapid reclaim has been processed they have calculated my income from carers' as £63.10 an extra £8.20 from the normal carers' amount of £53.10 which now equates that my Income support entitlement is £31.80 per week not £40.70 per week that they have been paying me for before my claim was stopped because of child support payments. So since 2002 it appears Income support have been overpaying me and again they want this money back.

 

I have just been on the phone to the Carers' department and the lady I spoke to has said Income support have always been aware there has been this extra allowance paid on top of my Carers allowance, so why up until I have had to do a rapid reclaim was this never picked up?

 

When they tell you on the phone that an overpayment must be paid back I should expect a letter to confirm this right? Completely bricking it now as a eight year overpayment of IS is going to be sh*tloads but I never knew about the extra allowance from Carers' allowance and it appears up until now neither did the team doing my Income support.

 

I can't afford to pay back 8 years worth of money, I might aswell be dead because all these bloody overpayments due to child support and extra allowances are driving me up the bloody twist.

 

 

If IS are not paying for your children then they only take the basic rate of CA into account not the £61.30. just the basic £53.10.

 

Appeal this straight away,

Who ever processed your rapid reclaim is wrong, very wrong

[Zara33]

If IS are not paying for your children then they only take the basic rate of CA into account not the £61.30. just the basic £53.10.

 

Appeal this straight away,

Who ever processed your rapid reclaim is wrong, very wrong

Letter re appeal in the post already Mikey christ I'm going to be on first name terms soon with the appeals dept and the tribunal panel soon.

When you say if IS are not paying for children do you mean the old way the use to pay, where you would get a child element on your IS for kids? Cos I no longer get this we were transferred over to child tax credits a while ago.

 

May I also say Mikey I am very grateful to you for taking the time to help me with this very difficult situation I find myself in at the moment.

[MIKEY DABODEE]

Letter re appeal in the post already Mikey christ I'm going to be on first name terms soon with the appeals dept and the tribunal panel soon.

When you say if IS are not paying for children do you mean the old way the use to pay, where you would get a child element on your IS for kids? Cos I no longer get this we were transferred over to child tax credits a while ago.

 

May I also say Mikey I am very grateful to you for taking the time to help me with this very difficult situation I find myself in at the moment.

 

 

Two points here,

 

first one its not your fault that your full £61.30 carers allowance was never taken into account just the standard amount, every April they have to do an uprating scan and the Carers Allowance should always be checked, so I would presume its an official error.

 

Second as soon as CTC was awarded for your children and IS ceased for them then your £61.30 CA would not have been taken into account anyway just the normal CA rate. We had a scan last year that corrected this.

Its because we couldnt take the extra money into account on the CA for the child if we were not paying for that child, in your case this would have been the case.

But of course if we are paying for the children then we would take the full CA into account.

So find out what date your CTC was awarded and you have no overpayment from that date anyway.

And all dates covered prior to this I would say are offical error

[Zara33]

Mikey I owe you big time I thought my whole world ended on Friday after that phonecall with Income support.

I have gone through all my bank statements well I say all, all that I have since 2004. I wasn't claiming Income support until 2008. I was getting carers allowance and child support was in payment it was in April 2008 that child support for some reason or another stopped and I started to claim Income support so there certainly isn't an eight year overpayment. Tax credits were in payment in 2004 also (I assume it was called tax credits rather than child tax credits back in 2004 as changes on my bank statement to child tax credits from 19th June 2006)

[MIKEY DABODEE]

Mikey I owe you big time I thought my whole world ended on Friday after that phonecall with Income support.

I have gone through all my bank statements well I say all, all that I have since 2004. I wasn't claiming Income support until 2008. I was getting carers allowance and child support was in payment it was in April 2008 that child support for some reason or another stopped and I started to claim Income support so there certainly isn't an eight year overpayment. Tax credits were in payment in 2004 also (I assume it was called tax credits rather than child tax credits back in 2004 as changes on my bank statement to child tax credits from 19th June 2006)

 

 

worry not

from 2004 IS did not pay for children anyway on new claims made that year,

so you have no overpayment at all.

Tax credits and child tax credits same thing, not to be confused with working tax credits though

As I said we paid back thousands to people who had the wrong rate of CA taken into account, I paid out such arrears myself.

 

So you have excellent grounds to fight this if an overpayment has been raised

Next question how much CA are they taking into account on your new claim.

[Zara33]

Before I had to do a rapid reclaim payments were:

 

Income support 2008/2009

£60.50 for me

+ £27.75 carer premium

Total £88.25

less £50.55 Carers allowance

= £37.70 pw (they were paying this)

 

Carers allowance 2008/2009

£237.20 every 4 weeks (was paid)

= £59.30 pw

 

Carers Rates 2008/2009

= £50.55

+ £11.35 for child dependant (reduction for an eldest/only child where CB payable)

= £61.90

- £59.30

= £2.60 (CB reduction)

 

Income support 2009/2010

£64.30 for me

+ £29.50 carer premium

Total £93.80

less £53.10 Carers allowance

= £40.70 pw (they were paying this)

 

Carers allowance 2009/2010

£245.20 every 4 weeks (was paid)

= £61.30 pw

 

Carers Rates 2009/2010

= £53.10

+ £11.35 for child dependant (reduction for an eldest/only child where CB payable)

= £64.45

- £61.30

= £3.15 (CB reduction)

 

Income support Rapid Reclaim March 2010

£64.30 for me

+ £29.50 carer premium

Total £93.80

less £61.30 Carers allowance

= £32.50 pw (they have sent a giro cheque for this amount, this should be £40.70 exactly the same as it was before child support payments began again)

 

Carers allowance 2009/2010

£245.20 every 4 weeks (was paid)

= £61.30 pw

 

Carers Rates 2009/2010

= £53.10

+ £11.35 for child dependant (reduction for an eldest/only child where CB payable)

= £64.45

- £61.30

= £3.15 (CB reduction)

[MIKEY DABODEE]

Yes your rapid reclaim is wrong, they should only take the £53.10 into account. You need to phone again

and get this put right.

 

Only basic CA should be taken into account since 2008 when you made your claim, you have no overpayment, in fact they owe you arrears on your new claim.

 

Any other news on your CSA overpayment.

[Zara33]

Yes your rapid reclaim is wrong, they should only take the £53.10 into account. You need to phone again

and get this put right.

 

Only basic CA should be taken into account since 2008 when you made your claim, you have no overpayment, in fact they owe you arrears on your new claim.

 

Any other news on your CSA overpayment.

Just phoned Income support dept to ask if they had received my letter asking for them to re look at my claim :D nice lady told me they have indeed looked at my claim again and as you said Mikey the rapid reclaim was wrong they have sent out the arrears and they have amended my claim to only take £53.10 as income.

 

No word whatsoever on the CSA overpayment as of yet.

[MIKEY DABODEE]

Just phoned Income support dept to ask if they had received my letter asking for them to re look at my claim :D nice lady told me they have indeed looked at my claim again and as you said Mikey the rapid reclaim was wrong they have sent out the arrears and they have amended my claim to only take £53.10 as income.

 

No word whatsoever on the CSA overpayment as of yet.

 

 

Thats good news about your rapid reclaim :D

 

And no news is good news regarding your CSA overpayment, I think that would be a nightmare to work out anyway for anyone.

 

and remember if your CSA gets reawarded then after April then it doesnt matter as its fully disregarded for IS purposes

[Zara33]

Just to up date tribunal was yesterday. Child support arrears are taken into account! Blah blah blah waiting for IS to get in touch now regarding the overpayment that happened in December apparently the tribunal couldn't discuss this bit yeaterday they could only discuss the child support side aye that took all of 10 minutes.

[MIKEY DABODEE]

Am not Surprised at that ruling, at the moment the emphasis is on overpayments aim being to get back as much money as possible, so this will make one

 

Claims were always processed with arrears of maintenance not taken into account, I remember going on the training courses run to coincide with the then new CSA rules and this was the rule then.

 

Its going to take a while to work out hope its not to big an overpayment for you