Cost of living £650 and tax credits

[JustAteaAndbiscuit]

Why are those on the old tax credits system not getting the first payment in July like those on UC? It says online it will be later in the year ?
AIBU to think that’s unfair ? Surely it should be at the sane time

*same

I was looking into this earlier. Probably another way they’re trying to push us onto UC

Apparently you just had to be eligible for either UC or CTC on 25 may so they already know who should receive it ?

we are on tax credits and FSM as are many other low income families we know why do we have to wait longer and struggle ?

What's this?

This. I have no choice but to wait for managed migration due to disabilities, but it's just another way of penalising people.

The £650 payment is split into 2 but if you’re on UC you get it sooner than those on tax credits

eligibility criteria for the same date though so they should know exactly who is getting it - why do those on tax credits have to wait longer ?

Do you have a link OP? I don't know about this

All I saw was that you had to be eligible for either on the 25 may so surely that wouldn’t be the case then ?

Sorry I’m rubbish and don’t know how to link but here are screenshots from gov U.K.

"This is to avoid people getting paid twice if they get other benefits on top of tax credits."

From a news article.

So for UC I’d eligible for it on 25 may payments are July and October I think

BUT for tax credits - again eligible on 25 may there won’t be a payment till autumn

I still feel it’s unfair for low income families getting tax credits

Yes, it seems that they don't class tax credits as a 'low income benefit'. We certainly feel low income!

Yes us too and this seems really unfair.

They will know exactly who was eligible on 25 May so it seems wrong to pay one group later. I know DWP does UC and HMRC tax credits but surely they could make payments at the same time

Just in case this may help someone, I recently swapped from CTC to UC. We are getting double what we were from tax credits now. A friend who wasn’t eligible for CTC has applied for UC after using the eligibility calculator I used and should be getting over £200 a month. It’s worth checking the calculator out.

@Wavygravy1 it doesn’t benefit everyone though. Students get completely shafted on it as do people who receive certain disability payments.

if I’d transferred over as a student, single parent, part time job (just graduated) then i would have been over £1000 a month worse off

I understand that, as I said, “In case it may help someone” and suggested the calculator as a starting point. Some people don’t realise they may be entitled to something when they haven’t been before, like my friend. She only applied because I told her about it.

Yerawizard how would you have been £1,000 worse off? Is that because student loan money was being set off?

On the other hand someone I know who receives around £160 on tax credits would get zero on UC. She was told by HRMC that, unless you privately rent, working single parents are always better off on the old system.

UC is far less generous in terms of topping up income and you're completely screwed if some of that income is unearned, like a pension. It's only when you factor in HB that you might be better off.

I decided to move from TC to UC in February, because I felt that any potential financial help would be easier to access through UC. The move from TC to UC was really easy, and I'm actually receiving more money.

We also made the swap from tax credits to UC after seeing in Martin Lewis that it may benefit many working families. On tax credits we were getting £75 p/m but we’re not receiving any payment as they say we had been overpaid previously. They have always got up to date info so no idea how we ended up with an overpayment every year but that’s a different story. On universal credit we now pay £130 off the overpayment plus they pay us around £260 monthly so are more than £300 a month better off but I do appreciate its normally only a two parent family like us who both work who end up better off like that

I think its to avoid double payment by mistake as those on IS etc get it July too

Thanks for starting this thread. I was wondering about the same thing myself.

When it was announced I could have sworn I read somewhere that housing benefit was on the alternative payments too like IS and ESA etc so the money would come from the LA. But I can't find that anywhere now and it seems like it comes from DWP.

We're still on legacy benefits as it looks like we'll be worse off on UC and I agree it sucks that we have to wait longer 😔