To wonder why the fuck tax credits/housing benefit etc are so confusing

[Abbbinob]

Dp works full time, but his pay has gone down this year, but tax credits add an imaginary 2500 onto his income anyway if we were to ask for it based on the current year.
im just about to start work park time, and they deduct 2500 off my wages

it seems like it's all worked out on fictional incomes that don't exist (except in our case the cancel eachother out)

DP earns a different amount every month, we have to take the wage slips to the town hall every time. every single month we've had an overpayment or an underpayment of up to about £200, because it's worked out on an average of 3 months and obviously the average changes every time we give them a wage slip so the previous months amounts change.

it's impossible to keep on top of this shit. we're skint as fuck all the time, which would be fine but it would be nice to know exactly how skint as fuck we are per month.
plus all the tax credit cuts etc i wouldn't be surprised if we'd be worse off with me working now but i'm going to anyway, as to not go insane.

the whole system is a fucking mess i'm really not surprised that this puts people off working, when i was a lone parent and not working at least i knew wtf was happening and how much money i had each month

[ThirtyNineWeeks]

[TopangaD]

We are £200 over the threshold to apply , I'm on a minimum wage job with childcare and other costs we I often wondered if we would be better off if he earnt less or on benefits.. In fact we have friends who are who are better off than us. Sounds like a mind f* we might be struggling but at least we don't have to deal with the madness.. How can you budget for that!? It's ridiculous!

[TopangaD]

Sorry should make clear oh's wage plus mine takes us just over..

[ABitSensible]

YANBU. The old system made far more sense IMO, they took the average of 26 weeks and paid you for that period.

The new system causes discrimination against lone parents and the disabled who are trying to find work. If they are entitled to tax credits they are not permitted to apply for jobs that have fluctuating hours or pay.
As most employers ask for 'as and when required' it can be really difficult for some people to find work.

[BarbaraofSeville]

Aren't tax credits based on last year's income which is why you have problems when you earn less this year than you did last year?

Although they were supposed to be introducing real time reporting that was intended to overcome problems like this, along with Universal Credit which should be able to react more quickly to changes in income and work status.

Whether it actually works in practice remains to be seen of course.

[tinyterrors]

The whole system needs an overhaul to make it easier for those on fluctuating incomes, more so with the ridiculous rise in zero hour contracts.

I have a problem with my NI number being linked to someone else's income. Since the new automated system our tax credits randomly stop and it takes weeks to sort out which means we can either pay the rent or eat until it's sorted.

[HopIt]

It's bull shit. It really is. I don't see why it's not real time, why it's based on these figures?
I rang with our figures (DH self employed) they started paying our tax credits. It seemed a lot, I rang and checked. They said it was right.
I rang again a few months later. Yep it was fine.

Got slapped with an over payment the next year, so they not only stopped the tax credits I'd relied on but asked for more of my money back to repay it.

I wished I'd struggled in the first place and not claimed. The woman on the phone was vile and suggested DH sell his tools to pay for the overpayment!!!!