Claiming benefits - working tax credit - at gross salary fo £32 k - so confused about entitlements

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My net salary at work will shortly be dropping to £1,800 per month (after tax and pension). I am a lone parent to a toddler who I pay childcare for. I receive no maintenance as exh has moved abroad out of jurisdiction and is on a low income anyway.

My colleagues have indicated that I might be entitled to claim benefits as they claim working tax credit and child tax credits - does this sound plausible? I pay £900 month mortgage and £250/ month to commute to work by train, as well as nursery fees (which thankfully will go down in September when I get the free 30 hours) . I'm not extravagant - aldi shopper, veggie, teetotal, non smoker, second hand everything, no eating out, free days out - but doing a budget calculator looks like I will be in the red every month despite these measures.

Does it sound plausible that I could claim benefits on that salary ( equates to about £32,000 annual salary , before tax, national insurance and public sector pension contributions).

I'm aware that my child care costs will never end really - I pay nursery fees now, but even with the 30 free hours when my child is 3, I will still hve to pay top up fees as I need childcare all year, then when my child is at school, because I work ( and commute as I cannot find anything closer), I will have to pay or breakfast and afterschool club and holiday club..)

FORGOT TO SAY - online benefits calculator on yougov. indicates I am not entitled to anything - does this sound right? Could I be making mistake entering in my details etc?

Where can I get advice? Citizen's advice bureau? Any advice I'd be grateful for, as the thought of getting into a snowball of debt terrifies me, and I am thinking of how I can improve things by taking a second job - but I work ft and commute over an hour each way already - so not sure how sustainable that it...

I would have thought on a salary of £32000 with 1 child you would not be entitled to any tax credits or benefits other than child benefit, but theres no harm in going online to do an application for it.

you might be eligible for Support for Mortgage Interest Loan. try one of the on-line benefit calculators, like www.entitledto.co.uk/

Why is your salary dropping? I don't think you would be able to claim on that salary.

I don't think you would be entitled to any TC on that salary unfortunately. My gross is just a little less than that with one dependant child and my TC have just stopped. I assume you claim child benefit? And get the single person discount for your council tax?

Benefits do not look at what you pay out, e.g rent, mortgage etc. They only look at what you earn.

You can claim child benefit. Do they mean tax free childcare maybe rather than tax credits?

Oh and I think your salary is to high for TC sorry.

Are you repaying a student loan because on 32k shouldn't you be bringing home more than 1.8k a month? I was on around 29k when working FT and with a 6.5% pension contribution I was bringing home about 1.8k (no student loan).

If you're not entitled to anything then can you find a job closer to home (I know this is not always feasible), which has lower commuting costs?

Do you get council tax reduction?

A single mum friend of mine gets tax credits and she earns a bit more than you. I don't know any details apart from that she was surprised but pleased that she can. I know her salary as we do the same job!

www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/child-tax-credit#child-tax-credit-income-limits

Have a look at that. It says on there that you can earn up to £40,000 per year if you pay for childcare with 1 dependant. Bare In mind though that come September when you get the 30 hours free you may no longer be entitled to it

You will get child benefit as well

It is worth phoning up and talking to them about it

To be honest OP there's no harm in applying so long as all the details you give are 100% accurate. However, as pp have said I doubt you would be eligible. I noticed our tc's stop when we got to about 27k income so even with childcare costs considered I doubt 32k would get anything and those calcs are usually quite good. I've only used turn2us.org.uk though and it was pretty accurate.

Only thing you might be entitled to would be help with childcare costs, but I'm not sure and you'd have to check/make an application to find out. Have you looked at tax free childcare or other similar help like childcare vouchers?

The Moneysavingexpert money makeover is a good place to start to systematically go through everything increasing your income and reducing your costs and then signposting to help where relevant.

Also, consider the benefit of small increases in income/savings in costs - Eg if you can increase income by £50 pm and decrease your costs by £50 pm, that's an extra £100 towards getting out of the red, so several small savings can add up and make a huge difference to your disposable income after basic essentials have been paid for.

Is there anyway you can reduce your housing and/or travel costs - eg moving to a smaller property or closer to work?

I wouldn't get too wound up about what your colleagues may be getting in tax credits. Ring the tax credits helpline on 0345 300 3900. They're supposed to be available till 8pm Mon to Fri and should be best placed to advise you.

32K isn't £1800 a month, surely?! I brought home more than that when I was on just shy of 30K before I went part time many moons ago. It does sound like too high for TC, nonetheless but you could look into the tax free childcare when they bring it in.

According to Listentotaxman £32k is £2095 pm take home before student loan and pension contributions, which could easily account for the difference down to £1800 pm.

Thanks all for the helpful advice - when I have tried the online calculator it says I am not entitled to anything. The take home is as a rough calculation by HR - they won't give me a precise calculation, but it's after tax, national insurance and a 8.5% employee contribution to my pension.

I cannot downsize to reduce my housing costs. I am looking into getting a lodger though. I cannot get a job closer to home - I have been applying for a year and getting ton interviews but affected by public sector pay cuts/recruitment freezes so think I am unlikely to get a better paid job.

My salary is dropping because I was made redundant and chose to take a job on a lower grade and without pay protection rather than take the redundancy as it is hard to find permanent jobs in my field, and the redundancy pay offer was statutory as you would expect , so not much

I will phone up. My colleague who suggested I look into it gets working tax credits or something like that - she has 3 kids of primary school age - she's new so I don't want to be nosey...

THANK YOU ALL - for your responses - all very helpful!

Well you might have a little extra take home:

listentotaxman.com/32000?pension=8.5%25 = £1913 pm if you don't have any other taxable benefits or student loan payments (why your HR department couldn't do better is beyond me).

The difference in entitlement between 1 and 3 DC is quite significant, so that could explain why your colleague gets tax credits and you don't.

I can't assure you this is fact but I've been told the cut off point for tax credits with one child is around the £26k mark. It raises for 2 children and again for more children that were born before cap was introduced. This may explain why your friend thinks the cut off is higher.

Thank you Throwaway4misc and BarbaraofSeville in particular - that is really helpful - yes, my new colleague's children are older - oldest is 10, so probably that explains he was born before the caps were introduced

They aren't interested in your outgoings other than childcare costs for Tax credits. What they want to know is how many hours you work, if you have a partner living with you or not, what your salary is and how many children you have.
There are also further add-ons if one of the children or parents is disabled.
I would try applying for child tax credit only as this has a higher threshold.
Earning extra money by taking in a lodger sounds like a good idea.