claimin mantenance

hiya ive been split from my ex husband for 2 years now and only just claimin maintenance,
i got told that getting maintenance would lower my benefits but when i talked to someone from the csa they said that the law changed so if ppl get maintenance it wouldnt affect there benefits.
anyways i was just wonderin if it would affect my rent, the council helps me pay my rent but would that change if im gettin maintenance?
im new to this so if any1 out there that can give me advice on what to do and what will happen that be great.
thanx for reading 🙂
cassie xx

Hi. If the laws have changed then I can't help you I'm afraid BUT if it's still the same as it used to be it worked like this: If you claim Income support and this was a payment of say £60 per week. If you ex has to pay you £30 a week you will still get £60 a week in total because what will happen is the government will take his £30 towards what they pay you and so that only leaves them with £30 to pay to you to make up your weekly payment. So technically you aren't better off, it's just that some of the money is coming from him! However if you are employed and not claiming income support or similar then any money he pays you will be a bonus on top of what you get, and any affect on your help with rent will depend on how much he pays you I tink. As I say though this is based on how it used to be and if you've been told laws have changed I'm not certain.

Joseph is almost 7 and when I was on income support if I had gone for maintance I would have been able to keep £10!

For example, my income support was £105 a week (because he was under 1) and if I had got £30 maintance a week, my income support would have been reduced by £20 allowing me to keep £10 giving me a total of £115 a week!

thank you both for reading and replying, i got told by my mum that him paying me money wouldnt give me more as it would be taken off anyways but when i talked to csa and income support they both said it wouldnt affect my benefits.
i kinda wish the law didnt change as the reason i contacted the csa was so i wouldnt have live on other peoples earnings no more.
im just gonna see what happens. thanx again guys just not use to stuff like this lol
cassie

Hi

My ex was claiming benefits until about 6 months ago and due to the money that I was paying her she was not entitled to any income support and only got a small bit of council tax and housing benefit. So unless the rules changed in the last 6 months or so then I think it will have an impact.

The website below may help to understand the impact.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Diol1/DoItOnline/DoItOnlineByCategory/DG_172666