More about temporary breaks in education due to ill health If your child is unable to continue with their studies temporarily, you may still be able to continue getting Child Benefit and Child Tax Credit payments for them. Instead, a temporary absence due to illness or disability can be ignored for as long as seems reasonable in the circumstances, assuming that the young person intends to resume education or training. There is no requirement that the young person intends to return to the same course – it should be sufficient that they intend to return to full time non-advanced education of some sort. If you are told that your Child Benefit or Tax Credits payments will be stopping because your child is temporarily unable to continue their studies due to illness, ask the relevant HMRC office to continue paying you under the rules on ‘interruptions to full-time education’ found at paragraph TCTM02230 of the Tax Credit Technical Manual and paragraph CBTM07050 of the Child Benefit Technical Manual. The situation is more complex if you are getting extra Universal Credit payments for your son or daughter instead of tax credits. You should be able to argue that any Universal Credit payments you get for them as a dependant should continue whilst they remain enrolled or accepted on their course, even if they are temporarily unable to attend due to their health problems. However, if they lose their place on their course due to non-attendance, any Universal Credit payments you get for them as a dependant will have to stop. This remains the case even if they intend to start another course in the near future. They may need to consider claiming Universal Credit in their own right as a young adult instead. Call our free helpline for advice about continuing to claim benefits during a temporary interruption in education.
More about temporary breaks in education due to ill health If your child is unable to continue with their studies temporarily, you may still be able to continue getting Child Benefit and Child Tax Credit payments for them. Instead, a temporary absence due to illness or disability can be ignored for as long as seems reasonable in the circumstances, assuming that the young person intends to resume education or training. There is no requirement that the young person intends to return to the same course – it should be sufficient that they intend to return to full time non-advanced education of some sort. If you are told that your Child Benefit or Tax Credits payments will be stopping because your child is temporarily unable to continue their studies due to illness, ask the relevant HMRC office to continue paying you under the rules on ‘interruptions to full-time education’ found at paragraph TCTM02230 of the Tax Credit Technical Manual and paragraph CBTM07050 of the Child Benefit Technical Manual. The situation is more complex if you are getting extra Universal Credit payments for your son or daughter instead of tax credits. You should be able to argue that any Universal Credit payments you get for them as a dependant should continue whilst they remain enrolled or accepted on their course, even if they are temporarily unable to attend due to their health problems. However, if they lose their place on their course due to non-attendance, any Universal Credit payments you get for them as a dependant will have to stop. This remains the case even if they intend to start another course in the near future. They may need to consider claiming Universal Credit in their own right as a young adult instead. Call our free helpline for advice about continuing to claim benefits during a temporary interruption in education.
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