To think HMRC would inform us about changes to tax credits

[noisytoys]

I saw this morning from various sources (FB, a thread in money) that tax credits have been reduced for a lot of people with no notice. I checked my tax credits which went in today and lo and behold, £94 every 4 weeks reduction. There is no more I can cut. I can't afford to live now. I thought I would put this here for traffic because I fear millions of people will affected

[carriedawayannie]

X posts lougle. That makes perfect sense now. Thank you

[lougle]

hm32, DH has just taken on an extra 5 hours per week at his work. The fact that it pushes his hours up to 30 hours per week gains us £790 per year. However, by the time you calculate the reduction in other benefits, the net increase in wages for those 5 hours is £3.20 in total

[500internalerror]

Last April our child tax credits were completely stopped & we owed them an amount, which they specified were not to be paid back till this April. I'm assuming they willl actually contact me? Just wondering now, if they havent paid me all year, will I be 'on a back burner' & have to contact them? I was hoping I might get some money again - enough to clear the debt - as my working hrs changed this year.

[Mrcrumpswife]

We dont get any housing benefit or C Tax benefit even though it totals over 50% of our earnt monthly income. Do tax credits inform Housing benefit office or would i need to apply to see if we are eligible?

[MrsPeeWee]

My DH has had a £2000 payrise since the last tax year - last April. How will they know this until we all receive our renewal packs in July? Or am I being naive?

[mumofweeboys]

www.mumsnet.com/jobs/changes-to-tax-credits

There is a bit on mumnet about chnages in allowance from april 2013

[PearlyWhites]

Mrcrumpswife you have to apply for hb or ct reduction

[messybedhead]

Mrcrumpswife have you looked at the calculator on the entitled to website? It will give you an idea about how much you may be entitled to.

[Mrcrumpswife]

I'm off to have a google. Thankyou

[CwtchesAndCuddles]

Our circumstances haven't changed at all. When we renewed our claim last year and had all the paperwork through afterwards I noticed that our provisional award for 2013/2014 was less per week by aprx £15
(£800 per year)

These cuts in tax credit were announced a long time ago and I think that has caught lots of people out

[loopylou6]

Yup, we've lost £40 a week

[JakeBullet]

Interesting thread, I wont know until the end of the month when it's due in if I lose anything. It's a sad fact that these cuts are attacking the working poor as well as the non working poor. It's scary how many people do not realise this.

[Mrcrumpswife]

I've done my calculation and it looks like the TC i am being paid is correct which is good in one way because i dread an overpayment.

I am also not entitled to HB or CTB but even more concerning is that our council appears to take child maintenance into account now which i hadnt noticed before.

Its a shame EX doesnt pay any maintenance

[x2boys]

when my ctc was stopped completley i got about six letter,s each to both myself and dh it was only about £40/ month so no biggie are you sure you have ent been informed?

[picnicbasketcase]

Is there any way of finding this out or do you just wait til you get the next payment? Mine goes in next Thurs and now I'm rather nervous. DH's wages pay the mortgage and bills, the TC pays for the food all month, if it goes down as dramatically as it has for some of you, I've no idea what I'll do.

[CwtchesAndCuddles]

Posted upthread to say ours has gone down by aprox £15 per week but as the tax allowance has increased I think the money we gain from that will be a few pounds more than the tax credit we lose.

The net effect is a small gain for us overall.

Less tax credit but pay less in tax.

[JambalayaCodfishPie]

Found last years paperwork - it does say it would go down from the 11th April 2013. And a little bit again from the 18th.

[Groovee]

We're still recovering from dh being made redundant last year. We ended up living on credit cards because his job seekers took over 8 weeks to get paid and we had nothing. Tax credits apparently should have helped us out but they kept saying it went on the previous year's salaries .

I remember when I did get tax credits, we had a change in April and it was usually documemented on the payment thing they sent you out once you renewed.

[wannabedomesticgoddess]

I read this earlier and panicked so we phoned them to ask the amount that would be paid next week. Payment up by £4 per week.

I am in NI though so might be different.

[MrsPeeWee]

Just checked my bank - our tax credits have gone down by approx £15, also. =(

Getting £41 felt much better than £25.

Never mind. Here I come budgeting threads

[HarrietSchulenberg]

How lovely of Koya to deliver those encouraging sermons of morality. And what a joy it must be to have the choice of whether to claim tax credits or not.
My essential household outgoings (mortgage, council tax, gas, electric and necesssary insurances) come to over £900 per month. Then there's food, clothes, shoes, diesel to get to and from work and all the other stuff that goes with having 3 children. I have a 3-bed mid-terrace in a pretty cheap rural area.
I cook from scratch and I can feed my family well on a shoestring. I have spent this winter being fucking cold as I daren't turn the heating on for more than an hour or two a day, and I have no heat downstairs anyway save for the cooker, because I can't afford to get the fucking gas fire fixed.
My salary is £750. Without tax credits we couldn't make ends meet. We'd lose our tiny house and would be forced into social housing, which is a) in very short supply, and b) more expensive to the government than it is to keep us here.
So Koya keep your smug sermons to yourself as you really sound like a twat.

[Isabeller]

OP, YABU to expect to be informed because the whole system is falling apart/being dismantled. We're on the other side of the looking glass now.

Sorry to be so negative, feel quite grim about the mess on it's way.

Really hope you find a way to cope.

BTW IMO choosing to live simply for ethical/religious reasons is not the same thing as having your income cut overnight.

[80sMum]

lougle you summed up nicely all that's wrong with the benefits system. The fact that it simply isn't worth people's while trying to earn a bit more because it all gets clawed back again discourages independence and creates a 'benefits trap' for people.
There has to be real incentive for people to try to better their situations. The present system is demoralising and demeaning and turns adults into 'children' dependent on the 'mother state' for money. There must be a better way. I wish I could think of one.

[wannabedomesticgoddess]

NMW should be enough to cover

Average rent
Council Tax
Electric
Heating
Reasonable food for a family of 4
Reasonable clothes for a family of 4

Aswell as that, rents should be capped/controlled. Nonsense like the TV Licence should be scrapped. Electric and fuel companies should be fined if they make over a certain % in profits. Tax loopholes shold be closed so that money cannot be sent to tax havens etc. If you work in this country the money should stay in this country.

Oh and workfare should be abolished.

It might all be pie in the sky, and there might be a million reasons why thosw things cannot happen. But I dont think a single one of them is unreasonable to expect.

[PariahHairy]

Wannabee, that might impact on profits, can't have that now, profits are king, as long as Tesco is making a millionty billion each year and the stock market is healthy, then you must know that the economy is fine.