Can anyone please help me with Child tax credits. Payment gone down

[TaxWoes]

Name changed as outing.

I have 4 children. Single parent on income based ESA.

My eldest left higher education in August, I informed Child benefit and ESA but not CTC. I thought they were the same.

So for 4 children I got 238 a week in child tax credit.

I informed them a week ago my son left education in Aug.

My payments have gont from 238 to 97 a week.

I phoned this morning and the guy said I owed 16 weeks because I didn't inform them of DS leaving education

Fair enough.

So I owed them £1015.

He said that the payments have been reduced to get that back.

I told him the reduction was too much.

I'm down £141 a week. My food shopping alone is more than £97

He said to do a budget. Call back an dif I have less than £5 a week left over they can reduce the payment plan and up my weekly CTC.

So I did that.

But when I called back it was a different woman who says I don't owe them anything.

There's no payback owed.

They've just recalculated the years tax credit for 2 children, 1 young person and a family element

And until April all I'm due is 97 a week.

I'm in such a state.

I knew there would be a reduction with DS leaving education but I expected it to go down a quarter.

I've just lost £560 a month.

How the fuck am I going to cope?

Why did the first guy say it was an overpayment issue and he can help reduce the amount

But the 2nd woman, 30 mins later said its not and that's it. Nothing can be done?

They are claiming back their overpayment to you, as they paid you on circumstances no longer correct.

So it's gone down by a quarter, but then there will also be a chunk on top to repay what you shouldn't have received in August, Sept, Oct, November and December. That's a lot of months of overpayment!

Ring back and try again see if someone else can help with a repayment plan, but you've received 5 months of extra money not owed to you, so they are going to want it back!

It's 16 weeks. And I understand that but the first guy said it was an overpayment and they can reduce the payment.

I've no issue paying it back, I just can't live off 97 a week.

But my issue is the 2nd woman said there IS NO OVERPAYMENT and she can't do anything.

How can the first guy see an overpayment and give me the numbers, then the 2nd woman say it never existed and the last overpayment was 2015?

I want to pay it back but I should be getting £182 a week

They're taking half

Sorry I'm just stressed.

On a Friday I do a shop for 5 people and it's £100 now, and we don't get anything fancy just basic meals and lunch stuff. I top the gas and electric up £50 each and use that a week, and give the kids their bus fayre.

I don't know what I'm gonna do now.

Seems like every time u ring tax credits you get a different answer to the same question doesn't it.

Use their online way instead. Through the government gateway. You'll find it if you search "manage your tax credits". Make an account if you don't have one then you'll easily find " tax credit overpayment" in the options. This should take you through the process to get the repayments reduced. Better this way as you then have a paper trail

How old are your other 3 children, born before or after 2017 as that affects how much you get doesn't it?
Can you ask them to send you a breakdown of what you are receiving?

All born before 2017.

I've filled in the form online.

My expenditure is £1500 and now my income is 1100

If he's left education is he going into work?

Do you also get child benefit?

He's been unwell, mentally.

He's starting some voluntary work soon. But I don't have any income from him right now.

When he starts doing voluntary work you still won't get any income from him, as voluntary is (almost always), unpaid.

If he's mentally unwell can he claim ESA? Can you as well? Do you claim PIP?

Is he over 18?

Aargh I meant to say do you/can you claim PIP (I realise you are already on ESA).

I'm scared to claim PIP.

I know that sounds daft but the whole process of ESA was so stressful to me. I was suicidal towards the end.

I just don't think I can go through it again.

The volunteer work was on a basis of getting some experience so he can start paid work there so just hanging on to see if that pans out

So sorry this is happening to you. Years ago when DD was young we claimed tax credits. I nearly had a nervous breakdown with them. In the end we gave up claiming, even though we were entitled. Constantly wanting money paid back to them. I know you can't give up, but good luck. I fully understand how you feel.

Why didn't you query that your payments didn't decrease back in September? They will take what you owe them from your payments up to April.

Ask for them to send you a letter with the breakdown. And/or log into your tax credits account online and see what you can find.

I'm sorry you were told such different things by the two different people you spoke to. The problem is the way tax credits are calculated. They do it by tax year, so they will have recalculated for the whole of 2022-23, and since the first 5 months (April-August) you were entitled to a higher amount, then the next 7 months (September-March) you are entitled to a lower amount, your overall total for the year is much lower. They've already paid you 9 months at the higher amount, so they will have deducted that from the new (lower) total, then whatever is left is divided up by the number of weeks left between now and the beginning of April... and that's why is so much lower. You had more for the last 4 months so you will have less for the next 3 months (rather than getting the correct amount averaged out over the 7 months).

The only reason they would talk about an overpayment or underpayment would be if you had too much or too little in a previous tax year (eg 2021-2022), then you could negotiate the repayments and ask for them to be spread out more. But sadly because you have been overpaid in this tax year they are basically just recouping it straight away by saying you've had most of your year's entitlement and they are only paying you what's left.

i hope that makes sense? Tax credits are stupidly complicated!

i advise you to contact your local Citizens Advice for help with all this. See www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/contact-us/contact-us/contact-us/#h-find-your-nearest-citizens-advice
They can look at your tax credits with you, they can give you food and fuel vouchers if you need them, and also help you apply for charitable grants if needed (eg energy funds, supermarket vouchers etc) and they can help with budgeting going forward.

Also, your son needs to apply for Universal Credit. Citizens Advice can help with that too if he needs it.
www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/if-youre-sick-or-disabled/getting-universal-credit-if-youre-sick-or-disabled/
www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/claiming/helptoclaim/

Lastly, you really should consider claiming PIP and again Citizens Advice can help with it if needed. If you got PIP you would also get more ESA (the SDP would be added) so it would be a significant increase in your income. To start with try this www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/personal-independence-payment-pip/pip-self-test

Thankyou so much. That makes sense.

I'm just scared applying for PIP will trigger a move to Universal credit. Everyone I know that has switched has been so much worse off.

I will talk to DS.

I really appreciate that information.

It's very unlikely indeed that claiming PIP will trigger a move to UC; I've never come across that (and I've worked in this area for nearly 7 years now). There's no reason it would.

Some people are worse off on UC but others are better off or about the same. In fact I do actually think it's better than tax credits in many ways because it's based on "real time" income (calculated monthly) rather than the complicated tax year stuff. However, in your case if you are eligible for PIP you would be better off staying on your current benefits.