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If i get £20 per week is mean I will just get £10
On 12 April 2010 the law on child maintenance changed.
The change means that parents with care who are on benefit can now keep all of the child maintenance they receive and it does not affect their benefits.
In the past, if the parent with care or their partner was getting income-related benefits and was getting child maintenance, the parent with care may not have got their full amount of benefits.
If you are on benefits you may not receive full child maintenance payments as well as your Income Support or income-based Jobseekers Allowance. This is because the Government keeps some of the child maintenance money paid by the non-resident parent to make up for the money paid as benefits. Instead, you receive whatever benefits you are entitled to, plus a child maintenance premium. This can be any amount up to £10 a week of hild maintenance that the non-resident parent pays to us. From October 27 October 2008, you can keep up to £20 a week of any child maintenance paid before it affects the amount of benefit you may receive.
Yes, you can keep all the child maintenance paid now, even if on Income Support. This means that it is financially worthwhile trying to GET some child support. I suggested to you yesterday that you could go through the Child Support Agency and that may be the way to formalise arrangements between you and your child's father. Please note, however, that the other parent only has to pay £5 a week if they are on certain benefits themselves
Thank you all for help
I am single mother but not allowed to get income support.....cos I am from Poland, I get jobseeker allowance
thank you
It is the same with Income-Related Job seekers allowance, you still keep the child maintenance.
I am struggling. I'll keep ya posted just to see the difference. Watch this space. No offence intended just couriousity xx
NOTE FROM MODERATOR: post edited, we ask that members are respectful of each others' different circumstances
Hello mandybyersno1
If you would like some advice and help with your money situtation, click here to contact our Money Expert
Hope this helps 
Hello, sorry to jump in on this post as i havent introduced myself yet, anyway im a single mum of one child i work 16 hours a week and get child/working tax credits and council and housing benefits, what i wish to know is do i have to declare child maintenance that i get from my ex? Im a bit worried now as i didnt think i had to declare it?
Hello Mznutty
No, child support is not taken into account, don't worry. if anyone has any questions about Child Support then we have our own CSA Expert and you can email her by clicking on the link
my 13 year old son recently decided to go live with his dad. More freedom and less discipline !!..
I would like to know why after spending 11 years on the dole my ex-husband. Who gets his rent paid. council tax paid ,and claims dole, feels he is entitled to have 15% of my net earnings and 1/2 of my working tax credits...I have recently been made redundant from work, and am now faced with all my direct debits and bills to face.. none of which I can cancel because I am under contract. I was recently offered a min wage job of 37.5 hours that after paying my rent and council tax . and CSA calculations of maintenance I would have been left with £32.60 per week to live on.
Granted I will have child tax credits and child benefit.. but so will my ex-husband .and they are not there to pay my direct debit bills . this is grossly unfair system . my ex has not paid any maintenance of kind in 11 yrs.. except on an occasion when he did 6 weeks work (dole office made him !!) I was handed £30 for the two children who both lived with me at the time.
I am a 47 yr old who has worked all my adult life and paid taxes . save 5 years when as a sudden lone parent couldn’t find employment to fit around the children [I volunteered in the classroom] why is the government so keen to hand out money to any one on benefits but refuses to help those of us on low income struggling to stay proud and work hard .
Hello not a happy mummy,
I can totally understand where you're coming from. The system seems very unfair at times - and not so much of a system, more of a shambles...
Have you made sure you are recieving everything that you are entitled to? You can check your situation out with our money and debt expert here.
Hello not a happy mummy
It does seem unfair that he has not paid and yet now you are being expected to. However, the system is not created to benefit/penalise the adults concerned but the money follows the child.....therefore whoever has the main day to day care of a child holds the entitlement to the child benefit for him/her and the child tax credits and any working tax credit child element etc. As he is not working, he won't get any working tax credit and of course your own working tax credit will reduce anyway as you now have only one child living with you......and surely if you have the care of one child each then it seems fair that you would not have to pay maintenance.....see what the money expert says first and then you can think about the maintenance question.
We also have a Child Support expert on the boards but to help parents who need to obtain child support, For queries about paying support yourself, have a look at this website
As far as I am aware, you are now able keep all the maintanence if you are on income support, even if it does exceed £20 a week. I think they've realised that a lot of absent parents when it does come to income support receive less than £20 a week and its probably cheaper ignoring it.
I have been getting about £14 a week for my four children, so it made no difference - sadly...!