Does Child Tax Credit increase dramatically when you have 4 or more children ?

[40RedBalloons]

From talking to other local mothers the average payment is £20/£10 per week for up to three children and leaps to £120 per week for four children. No special needs or other unusual circumstances in any family unit. What do other families with 4 children with a SAHM, a working father and no childcare related element get in basic child tax credit ?

[MeMySonAndI]

Perhaps the household income of that family is smaller than that of the rest, or are in an area where the council tax is higher or anything like that?

[40RedBalloons]

All families live in the same area and salaries are between £20k and £30k. The two larger families on the higher rate had the highest salaries. Of course they could be over paid in error, I understand the CTC make a lot of mistakes.

[sazm]

we get £380 a month child tax credit,for 3 kids,hubby works i dont,no childcare - and thats with it reduced due to hubbys wages - £26,000ish
we dont get working tax credit as he earns too much.

[MeMySonAndI]

...or they could be shy of revealing their true income or current circumstances. Appearances could be deceptive. I know someone who has a very nice house, in a very nice area who drives a nice car, and who practically lives out of tax credits... it is not fraud or a mistake, the house, area and car are the remains of her former marriage, they were there before her income went down.

[wheresthepimms]

CTC do make lots of errors, we don't get it anymore but when we did they once wrote and told me that as DC3 had died I had to pay his last years credit back. It surprised me as at the time he was sat eating his supper after 32 pages of their documents pointing out all their errors they agreed they had made a mistake. They overpay regularly also can yu trust what friend is saying, people sometimes exaggerate or maybe they added child benefit or something on as well

[sazm]

it could be the families in the lower salary bracket are receiving this much working tax credit - and not child tax credit,
when we had working tax credit, it was paid weekly, our child tax credit is paid monthly,we were told the only way to have it paid weekly is if you;re a single parent?

[sazm]

hmm,they told us they can only pay weekly if you are a single parent! and we have asked them several times!yrs ago when we got the WTC they said it could be paid weekly but the CTC couldnt, same with child benefit, but my sister gets all of her money weekly! take it they just dont like us!

[40RedBalloons]

I believe these women were being honest with me, they volunteered their information unprompted. I mentioned a few weeks ago that our CTC was reducing £10 per week, so I need to re budget the remaining £20 per week. Two mothers I am friendly with, told me that I need to look into my CTC, as I clearly I wasn't been paid correctly as they were paid over £100 per week each (one has 4 children, the other 5 children). The other mothers on the playground chipped in with their figures and everyone else was around £10/20 per week but had 3 or fewer children.

Everyone is paid monthly, we were just discussing how much we got per week IYSWIM.

at wheresthepimms story. Are they really as heartless as to demand money back from grieving parents. Glad it was an error on their behalf but really who should the letter of gone to ?

[wheresthepimms]

yes they are, I did however in the end get an apology with 50 quid for the distress it caused Apparently if you stop your claim they will take the last years money back even if it is because your DC died, I couldn't believe it made me for those who it does affect. I told them I didn't want their money as it was more hassle than it was worth, couldn't cope at the time with 4 DCs that were 8,5,4, 4months and DH away for 6 months and that all the confusion and demanding letters was just annoying me more than the benefit of the money (couldn't really afford not to have it at the time but would have been worth budgeting a little for the less stress at the time) they told me that then I would have to pay all 4 DCs money back aaahhhh. I can only say that I now hate them with a passion and am secretly glad that they stopped our credits this year