to think that if you used to moan about the Tax Credits system....

[ThatVikRinA22]

that you have a lot more to moan about now?

I always used to wonder why people bemoaned the Tax Credit system - it enabled me to go back to work, it helped me pay for child care that made working worth while - it really helped me when my children were younger, before TC i used to work, but most of my wage went on child care.

Up until this government got it, we still got a small amount of TC, - it helped hugely.

Yesterday, i got the renewal through. Ive not had any payments for months and so i rang them to ask why they had sent a renewal through that made no sense - it said we should get about £4k but then deducted £4k.....

so i rang them.
Now, if your household income is more than £26k (with one child still at school) you get nothing.

if our household income was 26k, we would be unable to pay our mortgage, or eat. I have no idea how they think that people with families to support, who pay mortgages and rising bills, petrol costs etc can afford to live on that?

my wages look good, but by the time ive paid into the (rapidly declining) pension, £200, paid petrol, £250, mortgage, £685, council tax, bills and food, and im trying to support my eldest through university by paying for his food, there would be a serious serious shortfall if we had only my wage alone.....

i have said on threads before that i couldnt understand people moaning about the TC system.....

Is it a case of you dont know what you ve got until its gone?

Thanks lougle, it has been a faint niggling worry they might have got it wrong and ask for the money back! But it makes sense now.

Lougle I didn't think we were eligible, they insited we were, they insisted we wouldn't be overpaid. I spent that money in good faith. It is a cockeyed system. Unable to get payments correct even with today's technological capabilities.

I found the whole TC's thing quite straightforward ,its the first time I've claimed though so I hope those words dont come back to haunt me!!

starmaker keep EVERYTHING. And every time you ring them, make a note of the date, time, who you spoke to, what you said/they said. It won't take long each time you do it and will really be useful if you do come up against any problems in the future.

Lougle. I suspect to most people that page is akin to A level algebra.

You can publish what you like but it doesn't make it understandable.

If you don't mind, show me the working out for say a family where H earns £18k a year full time, W earns £4k a year part time and they have 2 kids who need childcare 3 days a week.....

Let's see how easy it is to work it out to the last penny and how many people understand it. I suspect not many.

thanks for the link Lougle, I didn't understand the bit about thresholds though. I hate the fact that we rely heavily on what tax credits we get because there's a constant fear of having the rug pulled out from under us. There's something wrong with the fact that we are both in employment and we still have to rely on benefit.

it is all very time consuming, is the problem I had

If you give me a figure for the child care costs, I could, niceguy.

Also, how many hours do the DH & W work each?

26k would be manageable on for some, but only if your circumstances are favourable. DH and I actually have looked at this recently as we've been wondering about one of us going on a career break for a year to look after DD when my maternity leave finishes, and that's roughly what we'd be managing on. One of us on 26k would leave £1684 a month if no student loan, plus £86 child benefit totals £1770. We could manage on that fine, though it wouldn't be lavish. If there were two earners with a combined total of 26k the take home would be a bit more, as there'd be two nil rate bands. But, and here's the rub, we're not typical. We have a HA property, rent £325 a month, and only band A council tax. As we live in a city with good transport links we could manage without a car, and we have no debts or childcare costs. So while ours isn't a particularly unusual situation- there are millions of people living in HA homes in cheaper areas of the country- probably the majority have higher housing costs. If we were in the south east that wouldn't even touch the sides, mostly because of housing.

And that's the big problem: high housing costs, especially for young families. Money spent on servicing a huge mortgage or paying a colossal rent is money not spent on other things. We have a real housing crisis in this country, and while that's not the only reason the cost of living has soared, it's a big part of it.

Lougie Would you mind awfully doing mine? I seem to get a lot more in tax credits than a few others posting today and it worries me. I'd really appreciate a fresh pair of eyes and maths minded brain?

DH earns £18200 per annum gross, and pays £700 of that into his pension. I'm a SAHM who earns nothing. We have a morgtage and no assetts. We have two children under 4, and don't use childcare.

Should add DH works 40 hours per week.

Dh was unemployed most of this year... but apparently because they base it on last years income we can't get any credits despite being told about £73 a week and if dh got a job it would rise to £113 for childcare . Dreading next year as they'll say we're entitled when we probably aren't,

My example is fictious so just make up any amount. The point I'm trying to make is that for your average person in the street it's anything but simple.

Given I am a few friends who are reliant on tax credits but can't tell me how long it takes to travel 80 miles if you are going at 80mph....i doubt they can work out their entitlement.

Groovee then next year they won't base it on this year because they'll say you have an income now

charlie you are entitled to keep tax credits for 39 weeks whilst on ma and tc do not count ma as income

shakey they cocked up.

now if you prove they cocked up and you had good reason to belive they hadnt then you dont have to pay anything back.

"FayeKinitt Tue 23-Oct-12 15:07:12

Lougie Would you mind awfully doing mine? I seem to get a lot more in tax credits than a few others posting today and it worries me. I'd really appreciate a fresh pair of eyes and maths minded brain?

DH earns £18200 per annum gross, and pays £700 of that into his pension. I'm a SAHM who earns nothing. We have a morgtage and no assetts. We have two children under 4, and don't use childcare."

Ok, let's use this one:

WTC first:
Basic element: £1920
Couple element: £1950
30 hour element: £790

Total: £4660

CTC second:
Family element: £545
Child One: £2690
Child Two: £2690

Total: £5925

Grand Total: 10585

But..don't forget that they don't mostly base it on this year (there are a few exceptions) and so if your income was lower last year you'll get more.

I'm not sure why people got used to the sort of lifestyle tax credits enabled them to have. I wouldn't have taken them into account when buying a house or anything because you simply don't know when they are going to be taken away.

Err...ignore that, sorry! - niceguy has a point...never do maths when you have small children jumping on you

Labour were indeed idiotic and short-termist to subsidise a low-wage high-cost economy in the way they did.
(And that is coming from the most anti-Tory poster on MN, in my own estimation :D)

What is now to be done? The entire wage and cost of living structure is broken. So many posts today from people struggling with the cost of living.

The Right's (non-) answer seems to be to bang on about 'personal responsibility' and how people should not have had children if they could not afford them (a prediction they needed to make accurately throughout their children's entire lives, I presume, or risk the label of 'irresponsibility' which appears to mean 'stuff your children, you can live on £70 a week now'.)

And Starbucks, Amazon, Apple etc pay 0.1% profits as tax.

Something is rotten in the state of Britain, so very rotten and we are only at the beginning of it.

It should read:

"FayeKinitt Tue 23-Oct-12 15:07:12

Lougie Would you mind awfully doing mine? I seem to get a lot more in tax credits than a few others posting today and it worries me. I'd really appreciate a fresh pair of eyes and maths minded brain?

DH earns £18200 per annum gross, and pays £700 of that into his pension. I'm a SAHM who earns nothing. We have a morgtage and no assetts. We have two children under 4, and don't use childcare."

Ok, let's use this one:

WTC first:
Basic element: £1920
Couple element: £1950
30 hour element: £790

Total: £4660

CTC second:
Family element: £545
Child One: £2690
Child Two: £2690

Total: £5925

Grand Total: 10585

Lougie Thank you very much for taking the time to do that. You see, this is why I worry. I actually recieve about four times that amount

But every time I go into the different calculators it says what I should get about £100 per week (which is what I get)

I'm really worried I'm being overpaid.

Sorry that was meant to be