I work on Tax Credits- AMA?

[TaxCreditLady]

I often see threads about Tax Credits, mostly negative. I have offered advice previously where I thought I could help.

Wondered if anyone had any questions

I have a question. My dh has just been made redundant. Even though his previous salary was too much to for us to claim. Our soon to be household income is so much less, worryingly less. Can we make a claim based on what we will earn right now?

--This will save me phoning up Monday--

The income disregard is £2500 isn't it? Does this mean I can earn up to £2500 more this tax year than we've estimated and it won't affect the amount of tax credits we get?

Also - I need to renew by the 31st of July, right? keep forgetting to do it

namechanger do you already have a nil award claim? If so you just need to provide updated estimated income for the current tax year.
If it’s a brand new claim you need to apply using last years income on the form and then update current year.
Use the gov calculator to give an idea of what you may be entitled to.

Bee sort of- the disregard applies between PY(final income) and the current year estimate.
It’s really a buffer to ensure your payments don’t dramatically reduce because of a small rise in income.
So say you earned 10k last year but estimate you would earn 12 this year. Your payments wouldn’t change now but as of 6th April next year, when the higher income would start to be used, they would reduce.

Does that make sense?

And yes- renew by 31st July unless your renewal pack says otherwise

Why are there so few check ups on amounts claimed for childcare? Paid directly to the provider would surely cut out some fraud

I am in a UC area, but still on tax credits (have been for two years). No circumstances likely to change in the foreseeable - when will the change over to UC happen for all people currently on TC?

I used to claim by myself but when I moved in with dh I called them about my circumstances changing and my award stopped. So do I now have to make a joint claim from scratch?

Is a maintenance grant considered income?

My DH is entering full time training and we assumed it would be.

Thank you. So it doesn't have an in-year effect on payments, but would possibly have the potential to cause a small overpayment in the period from next April to whenever I renew... and then the higher amount I've earned would become my CYI?

I should confess, I worked in tax credits years and years ago, but I was a line manager, so it's all mostly fallen out of my brain. The income disregard thresholds were a lot different as well so I didn't have to think about them.

My situation is that I was on secondment for a while, which attracted overtime pay and a bonus. It's definitely below the £2500 and I don't do regular overtime so my income will stay below it now. I wanted to be sure I wouldn't trigger an overpayment.

glitter there are lots of childcare checks that take place. If it were to be paid direct to provider there’s still scope for non compliance from unscrupulous providers. And overpayments due to delays in telling us children have left etc. it’s the claimants choice to claim and therefore their responsibility to manage changes and any checks. Childcare is commonly checked though

iwant honestly no one at HMRC knows this, certainly not at my grade. I only know it will be phased and DWP will invite a claim when required. I’m in same boat and have no idea.

namechanger yes you will do. You can request a form online. Will take roughly 2 weeks to reach you

Bee yes, chances are you would be overpaid. It just would affect you until next April onwards once this years income is final

Sorry bee it WOULDNT affect your payments until next April. At one point the disregard was 25k iirc! More recently 10 then 5

I had a feeling. It won't be by much though, hopefully. Thank you.

Why are overpayments so common? Not when income has changed, but when all details have been given correctly, nothing changes and then next year you get an award notice saying you need to repay an overpayment...

It’s hapiened to most people I know.

Hehe, I knew what you meant.

When I renew my tax credits i get a text to say documents have been received.

I had a compliance check this year and have two questions (1) is it purely coincidence that Ive been compliance checked twice in five years and (2) do they text when docs arrive as I sent mine 15 days ago and no text.

With tax credits are savings taken into account? Like do you not get tax credits if you've got a lot of savings?

batchet I’m 90% sure it isn’t included. Is it a post grad course? Student loans and most bursaries aren’t included so without having guidance in front of me I’d say not to include

And what evidence/documents do you have to send to claim tax credits?

What is a compliance check as someone above mentioned? What does it consist of?

Oh I see you say childcare is often checked. Odd thing is my WTC is given but the childcare element is nil. The entireity of my WTC goes to my CM plus the top up we pay to clear the balance, yet the specific childcare element we are entitled to is zero.

tabula honestly in all my time working with TC claims I’d say 99% of overpayments I’ve looked at have been caused by failure to notify HMRC of changes Or increased income.

purple my compliance check ive been asked to send all evidence of childcare for one of my children. Receipts, contracts etc. Ive sent the lot for the pair of dc as I have joint receipts per week.

Why don’t PAYE and tax credits just share information? They are both part of HMRC.

nap queen probably not coincidence but not attack on you personally. People who have higher awards are checked due to the potential cost to the tax payer. So if your childcare costs are £300 pw, the chances are they will be checked more often.
If WTC is in payment you should be entitled to help towards childcare. What do HMRC have as your average weekly childcare costs?

purple you only need to provide evidence of asked. A compliance check is to ensure you are receiving the correct amount of tax credits. ie- that you are being truthful.

Tax we pay 700pcm childcare for two (1 ft and one wrap round). Our income is under 37k combined pre tax.