Child / Young Person Excluded From The Family (Info)

The circumstances where a child or young person is not included in the family are as follows.

Receiving Incapacity Benefit (IB)

A child / young person cannot be included in a claim for Child Tax Credit (CTC) when they are in receipt of Incapacity Benefit (IB) in their own right. This is because the claimant is no longer considered responsible for that child / young person.

Note: Employment and Support Allowance ( ESA) will replace Incapacity Benefit (IB) for new claimants from 27/10/2008. A child / young person cannot be included in a claim for Child Tax Credit (CTC) when they are in receipt of ESA in their own right. As with Incapacity Benefit, this is because the claimant is no longer considered responsible for that child / young person

Note: 'Transitional Protection Cases’ - This exclusion does not apply to families who have had entitlement to CTC up to and including 05 / 04 / 2004 in respect of children / young persons who are also in receipt of IB in their own right.

These families will benefit from transitional protection and continue to receive CTC for those children / young persons until either

• They leave full-time education or an approved training course

• They reach the age of 20

• There is a break of more than 8 weeks in the children’s / young persons’ entitlement to IB

Or

• There is any break in entitlement to CTC for those children / young persons

Custodial Sentence

A child or young person cannot be treated as part of the family if a custodial sentence has been passed on them

• For life

• Without limit of time

• Of detention during Her Majesty’s pleasure

• In Northern Ireland, of detention during the pleasure of the Secretary of State

Or

• For a term or period of more than four months

Care and Adoption

A child or young person who has been placed in care or adopted by a family can be included as part of the family unless one of the following conditions apply

• A child or young person cannot be part of the family if they have been provided with or placed in accommodation under Part III of the Children Act 1989, Part II of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 or Part IV of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 and the cost of that child’s accommodation or maintenance is borne wholly or partly

• Out of Local Authority funds under section 23 of the Children Act 1989, or section 26 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995

• In Northern Ireland, by an authority, within the meaning in Article 2 and under Article 27 of that Order

Or

• Out of public funds

Or

• Where the child or young person is

• Being looked after by a Local Authority and has been placed for adoption by that authority in the home of a person proposing to adopt him

And

• A Local Authority is making a payment in respect of the child or young person’s accommodation and / or maintenance under section 23 of the Children Act 1989 or section 26 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 or Article 27 of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995

Note: In Northern Ireland, references to a Local Authority should be substituted with references to an authority (within the meaning of Article 2 of that Order)

Child or young person with a child of their own

A child over the age of 16 or a young person cannot be awarded CTC in respect of his or her own child at the same time as they are included as a child or young person in a different family.

Long term hospitalisation

A child or qualifying young person can still be treated as normally living with a family if they are a patient in long term care unless, during that time, the family ceases to have main responsibility for the child or young person.

Death of a child

A deceased child can still be treated as a member of the family for the period of 8 weeks immediately following the date of death.

A deceased young person can still be treated as a member of the family for the period of 8 weeks immediately following the date of death or up the date on which he or she would have attained the age of 20, whichever is earlier.

This only applies where the family was (or would have been if they had made the claim) entitled to CTC for the child or young person immediately before the death.