Child tax & Carers allowance question

[BabeRuthless]

Wonder if anyone can help. I'm looking to cut my hours back at work due to their general unhelpfulness & lack of understanding as to why I can't just get childcare for ds. Trying to work out if we can manage financially so have a few questions.

1. with regards to child tax, do I have to fill in a whole new set of forms or can I just give them my new circumstances over the phone and they calculate the new amount from there?
   
   
2. will my child tax jump up that much if I go from 30 hours to say 12?
   
   
3. am I right in thinking that Carers allowance is only payable if you work under 16 hours and earn less that £400 a month?
   
   If anyone knows that would be brilliant. This week has been an absolute write off, from ds screaming everytime a leaf blows away to the boiler packing up yesterday it's been a bloody nightmare. October, I hate you so far.

[lec0rnsillk]

grr that you have had to reduce your hours...me also. I wish the government would do something to help us to work - they're always banging on about getting mums working.
I only know the answer to question 3 which I think is yes as I looked into that one. HTH. I think you need to be getting DLA for carers allowance.

[WinterIsComing]

The child tax disability element is a set amount no matter how many hours you work. We claim it (SAHM) rather than claim carers and then have it taken out of the tax credit award (as it is taxable income) IYSWIM? Swings and roundabouts. Perfectly legal I might add, just a simpler way of doing things.

www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/TaxCredits/Paymentsandentitlement/entitlement/DG_073939

All I did was ring them up and told them that DS had been awarded DLA and they amended it as a simple change of circs. they check with DLA themselves and backdated it to his award date too £2800 p.a for higher rate and £1130 for middle rate.

Not sure about 2) You're right about 3)

If you qualify for carers or the disability element you may also be entitled to a premium for rent / housing benefit.

Sorry about your week

[lec0rnsillk]

I get the 'waving not drowning' newsletter for working parents - can't remember who it was but I think I was directed to it from this board.
info here

[BabeRuthless]

Thanks for all your replies, genuinely touched and a little bit emotional! We do get dla for ds, he has autism & I'm often up in the night with him. Our company has all kinds of policies for absence etc but the attitude of my manager makes it so difficult. She basically wants me to guarantee hours that I can work over Xmas but I can never guarantee that I wont have to leave work suddenly or not be able to come in because ds refuses to go to school.

I'm going to speak to someone at our hr department tomorrow but I'm just so sick of the whole thing that I'd rather just cut back my hours at this point. When ds is ill I shouldnt be thinking about how much trouble I'm going to get in at work. Sorry for the ramble, it's been a long week. Hopefully I'll make more sense tomorrow.

[lisad123]

If you pit your money sums into entitledto.com you can get an idea of what you might get.

You get a certain amount of ctc for having a kid with DLA at middle rate and slightly more for higher rate.
Carers is £55 a week.
I gave up work last year because between the two girls with Asd and dh Illness I was struggling to fit all appointments in, it's helped alot, and now I do 3 hours a week

[Chundle]

Carers allowance doesn't go by how many hours a week you work just earnings. As long as you earn under £100 a week you can claim it

[pinkorkid]

The under 16 hours thing is related to working tax credits which you only get if you work more than 16 hrs per week. If you work less than 16 hours per week and overall household income is less than about £16.5K, then you will be eligible for free school meals. There is a bit of flexibility with the amount you can earn with carer's allownace in that they allow a certian amount of your earnings to be spenct on eligible child -care. Obviously if the whole problem is that it's not possible to leave your dc with SN with anyone else that's no help but potentially if you have a NT child who does need childcare while you work you could offset this against your earnings.

also yes to giving info over the phone and to noticable increase in child tax credits - also they should be able to give you an estimate of what the difference in your award would be if you reduced your hours, providing you have details like hourly rate etc ready to give them.

[BabeRuthless]

Just a quick update and another thanks. Rang my hr department who told me that any hours change I would have to put in writing in line with their flexible working policy. I told them my son has autism & they barely acknowledged it. I was hoping for a but of back up from them, but looks like I'm on my own. Think cutting back might have to be the way to go, did a few quick sums and I think we may be just as well off with tax credits going up and if I claim carers allowance. We own our house & have a mortgage to pay so I'm really worried about making such a huge change.

The "Waving not drowning" link is really handy. Thanks for putting that up, I'd never heard of them before.