Free calls for child maintenance

The government has bowed to pressure from campaigners to make sure that parents don't have to pay to telephone for help with child maintenance.

Although the Child Maintenance Options helpline -- run by G4S -- is an 0800 number and free to phone from landlines, mobile calls can cost up to 41p per minute.

Now the Department for Work and Pensions says it has struck a deal with two providers, 'Virgin' and '3', to remove the charges from next month, with the taxpayer picking up the bill.

Discussions with the other major mobile companies are "ongoing".

Separated parents have to phone the number in order to make an application for support using the new Child Maintenance Service.

Gingerbread, which campaigns for single parents, called the move a U-turn and "an important victory for families for whom every penny counts".

The industry regulator, Ofcom, has introduced new rules which will make calls to 0800 numbers free for all, including mobile users, but these will not come into force until June 2015.

235,000 risking Child Benefit fine

235,000 Child Benefit claimants on higher incomes need to register with HMRC by midnight on 5th October or face fines.

After that they will need to fill in self-assessment tax returns, to be returned on paper by the end of October or by 31st January 2014 if submitted online.

HMRC says that 1.1m were caught by the new policy of removing Child Benefit progressively, through a tax charge, from those on between £50,000 and £60,000 a year and completely from those on over £60,000.

405,000 have simply opted out of the benefit. Others are already caught up in the self-assessment process or have recently registered.

But 235,000 have only 11 days to register or risk fines ranging up to 100% of the extra tax they owe. As Radio 4's Moneybox highlighted over the weekend, the fines could be many hundreds of pounds, in theory.

Child Benefit is paid at the rate of £20.30 a week for the first child and £13.40 for each subsequent one, so a family with two children receives £1,752 a year.

In reality, HMRC is only likely to impose 100% fines on deliberate tax-dodgers.

And there is a way to redeem yourself, even if you fail to register by the 5th October deadline.

If you still pay the extra tax due, through the self-assessment system, the penalty is likely to be offset against your tax - in other words, it reduces to zero.

Here's the government website which tells you how to register. It's a simple process - the tax forms come later.