I'm so worried and upset and horrified this is ok

[pinkrosebuds69]

HMRC have just cut my working tax credits completely . I am self employed,.
I don't understand I sent them all the paperwork for the necessary checks . All early and renewal early along side my tax return 6 months before the deadline .

Apparently they "don't have enough evidence to support my hours ) and have cut them completely .
I only know this from calling up myself to check .
This decision was made with no call to me. The decision was sent out last Tuesday but I've still not received ( apparently it can take 7-10 days )
Until I have the letter apparently I can't appeal or even question it .

I am in tears , I need my tax credits to pay child care and for food I don't know what to do or where to turn or what I've done wrong. I can't buy any food now tomorrow for the week .

OP
With regards to your HB you can ask to be assessed on a nil
Income
They don't advertise this useful bit of info , which is why people can get into debt when TC stops and HB are informed

ring HB first thing tomorrow as TC will have contacted HB and informed of your change of circumstances
So it's very important to ask HB that your assessed as a Nil income while this is being sorted out

Baby rooms are you really saying both you and your partner only work from 10-2 and make 8.5k between you but get benefits such as tax credits?

Indeed, assuming they work five days a week then they're not fulfilling the criteria for WTC, which requires at least one parent to be working 24 hours a week.

I have not claimed any benefits when sick or at all

I think not claiming benefits when sick may be what has caused this mess. You would be entitled to them, you should have claimed them. You not claiming them when sick may have lead them to believe that you were not earning from you business when you were not sick.

I am willing ro bet this is at the bottom of this!

Just to confirm as some people are really pulling facts from thin air

I have had no letter .
I only have what an officer at HMRC told me which was that they didn't have enough evidence ( he said it could be hours ) but could see nothing to confirm that and I'd have to speak to the correct department tomorrow at 9am .

In your opening post you said that the officer on the phone told you that they did not have enough evidence to support your hours. The information you have provided since backs up this assertion.

Yes clarins. I have no letter or written evidence or what they exactly want it need . Your posts in particular are really upsetting me . Do you not have anything else better to do than pick apart peoples posts .

Some people have actually been really helpful with proper advice .

Please find another thread to be goady on.

I don;t think it's easy to claim sickness benefits like ESA when self employed though. Due to NI conts?

Not sure why you even posted this thread if there's so little info from HMRC to go on

You'll find out tomorrow if it's a mistake or because you aren't satisfying the criteria (which you aren't by the sound of it). Even if you get TC reinstated for this year I'm betting it will be on the basis that by next year you are earning minimum wage.

Time to work hard on expanding your business or branching out to make it more profitable.

Yes that's what I ascertained too ,
Plus I wasn't sure how long I would be off so didn't want to rock the boat .

Sometimes when you are struggling day to day trying to keep on top of things the thought of having rent frozen whilst it was the assessed was too much . I was too scared of rent arrears

What have I said that is goady? I'm genuinely trying to help. From the information you have provided I can see why your award has been cut and unless you have a robust plan to make your business more profitable then I can't see how HMRC will continue to pay out. You have asked for advice on a public forum, I have given mine.

Surely you can see that your current situation is not sustainable.

OP I do think Clarins has been pretty sympathetic to your position- and has been trying to offer practical advice too.

If I were you, I'd step away from the internet now tonight, have a and go to bed, then call in the morning and go from there.

I think people are being very unhelpful. Speculation about whether or not the biz is viable doesn't help the OP one jot. I really feel for you, pink. It's an appalling situation to be in. I'm self-employed & was asked to provide evidence of hours, biz plan etc which i did. It was all fine for them but, when i phoned to tell them of a chsnge in childcare provider, they accidentally marked me as needing investigation & referred me to the compliance team. It took me a while to sort out because i needed the compliance team to remove the error & they are very hard to get hold of. However, I did it, just had to commit a lot of time to phoning. The trouble is that when they make a mistake, it's a nightmare to sort it out, very stressful and, in your case, leaving you & your child without food. Hope you do sort it out tomorrow. Wishing you the best of the luck.

If you earn so little and did not claim any sickness benefit I don't understand how you paid the rent while you were off sick as it sounds like you only get partial housing benefit? It's by the by really, I'm just curious

Clairin you have formed an opinion based on very few facts and the little info I've given of my situation plus zero hard evidence from HMRC because I simply don't have it . It's just unnecessary and was not why I started this thread to have my situation scrutinised and judged without a clear disclosure of the situation.

Other people have offered helpful input and practical solutions of dealing with HMRC .

Totally agree that the situation is appalling but the viability of the business is absolutely key. It's not very palatable to consider the viability of the business when faced with an immediate crisis but that is the reality. The crux of the matter is lack of profit and there's no hiding from that.

Thanks cutedogs that is really helpful . It's the compliance team I need and I have found them really hard to get hold of .
I do have a direct line and email that's why i was surprised this has happened With no communication

I believe the nme only applies to employees, not the self employed or company directors. I am the latter and get wtc I have never been investigated, please try and have confidence in what your doing , I know it probably won't help but HMRC will only deal with hard facts so double check everything and just speak to them as soon as possible and do anything they need you to do, unfortunately you will just need to ride it out and play their game, just try and hang in there.

I believe the nme only applies to employees, not the self employed

Clearly not based on the information that has been linked at least twice.

pink, they ARE hard to get hold of. I found the best approach was to decide i' d dedicate a morning or afternoon to trying to reach them (it helped me feel less stressed to think I had several hours set aside for it) then I kept phoning. I'd let it ring until it automatically cuts you off. Then I'd immediately ring again. I kept doing it until someone answered.

I have tried to offer you help with HMRC but even without information about why your award was stopped, we know that they will need you to meet the eligibility criteria. From the facts you have given us, you don't. To deal with HMRC effectively you need to meet their criteria which means your business needs to make more money.

I'm honestly trying to help. The rules have tightened and you need a plan B.

I'm also genuinely concerned that you have been sucked into a MLM. This happened to a close friend of mine and almost ruined her. Your unwillingness to disclose any information about your business worries me, not because I think you're lying but because I think you may be being manipulated. No one earns £5,500 a year for 20 hours a week and thinks that's ok (unless it's a start up, which you've said it's not or they are being manipulated).

OP it seems you are doing your absolute best to look after yourself and your child. Stuff everyone who says they're paying their tax to pay for you.

There's no such thing as tax credits for the working poor. Tax is taken not given back.
There's no such thing as tax for the general population - it's just take home pay. The percentage of which is a political bat.
There's no such thing as tax for the 7/84 as they'll have methods of hedging it all the way.

I hope you sort it out OP, no one in this rich country should be hungry.

Bum I used tax credits and didn't pay any bills for months and lived off minimal food.

All bills paid now and things have been going ok until this .

Baby rooms are you really saying both you and your partner only work from 10-2 and make 8.5k between you but get benefits such as tax credits?

"Indeed, assuming they work five days a week then they're not fulfilling the criteria for WTC, which requires at least one parent to be working 24 hours a week."

No, both parents are working only 20 hours a week. I'm a bit of a leftie but to see that two people are only working 4 hours a day each and getting benefits is shocking (unless both parents have medical needs which means they cant work for longer)

Pink - I know it's not the question you asked when you started the thread but I think it's the important question. Why are you working for considerably less than the minimum wage? You don't need to answer it here but I really think this is the question that you need to ask yourself.

I hope you get it sorted in the morning as it sounds extremely stressful. I strongly believe that they should have to give 3 months notice before stopping benefits. It is very cruel to stop them so abruptly.

In the long term you do have to think seriously about your business. Is there seriously room for growth because if not you need to think about getting a job instead. Even a minimum wage job,at 20hrs pw, (assuming you're over 25yrs) would pay £7800pa. It is unlikely that your chilcare costs (for a school age child) would cost 2k a year.