Child Tax Credit...have I missed something?

[Tamz77]

I'm about to sound really dumb please bear with me!

What is Child Tax Credit? I was just reading muma3's thread and realised I don't have a clue; have heard of Working Tax Credit but didn't realise there was another type of tax credit.

Is it something I could be entitled to? I am a single mother of one child aged 4, in receipt of Income Support and Housing Benefit. I receive no child maintenance. I do not work and have no other income (except CB).

Have looked at the entitledto site but not sure if CTC replaced IS or is a separate benefit? The government site wasn't very helpful...

Any advice appreciated, thanks )

child tax credit replaces the child element of IS, so if you get £59 IS only then you need to claim CTC, if you get roughly £100 IS then they are still paying the child element, eventually everyone will be moved over to child tax credit.

If you get IS from a few yrs back, CTC is part of that

Government are moving the CTC amount from the IS bank to the tax credit bank (basically!) so we get the same amount of money per week, but from 2 different debits to our accounts

absolutely pointless IMPO!!

For CTC you have to be working over 16 hours I think Income support if you are under 16 hrs or don't work.

I am in the middle of trying to figure it all out and found the best people to phone are the tax credit people them selves.

I spent 3.5 hrs in the CAB and realised I knew more than the woman trying to help me.

I don't work and get CTC and IS plus HB and council tax paid.

Sorry it is the working tax credits you need 16+ hrs for

maybe I would be better working under 16 hrs then.

I am trying to figure out what is my best option and getting no where. I can choose how many hours I work so I would really love to know which way I would be better off.

I think the idea is to make it more seamless if you go into work.... don't know though.

Quite often people are entitled to one TC but not the otehr 9can't remeber whch way around)- other benefits such as disability supplements (which you get added to TC if your child gets DLA) are also paid with TC

Skribble it was a few eyars back and things change, but when I went from 15 hours to 20 my TC shot up

cab r rubbish but job centre brilliant they will print of exactly what u will get for different scienorios (bad spelling) ie 1 sheet if u not working, 1 if u working under 16hrs, and 1 if u working 16 or over. Then u can compare. They r really helpful

Don't know if my job centre would do that they don't seem to like anybody going inside.

When I went to the tax office to collect a tax credit form and get some advice they pointed to a phone in the corner. I might as well have done that from home instead of going into town, woman on phone was really nice though.

If u are alone parent, go in2 jc and ask to speak to lone parent advisor, as far as i am aware every jc should have one if not maybe try a bigger one in town centre or something

You can get a good idea of different scenarios on entitledto. (cant remember if its com or co.uk)- we were [sock] to find we would be entiltled to HB when I finish Uni (am pg so can't work for a while, also have 2 sn kids which gives you extra credits).

CaB are NOT rubbish- but they are mainly voluntary- as a servie we should be grateful for them, they help many, many poeple. TC's are nto transparent and therefore not easy to advise on.

as far as i know it works like this:

if you have been on benefit for some years then you dont get CTC, you are paid a larger amount of IS (for you and the child).

if you have recently started claiming (i had to four years ago) then you will get fifty something for yourself IS and then CTC on top.

either way, it works out to about the same amount. you cant have both. if that makes any sense?

as for how many hours to work, forget the TC website, it seems to throw out random figures ime. job centre lone parent advisors are the best people to talk to, they can twist the figures all ways to see how it would be best for you taking everything like housing benefit, TC..even free school meals, travel expenses blah blah, into account.

I completed one thing on line and it said I would get a total of £36000 on income support, somehow I didn't think that was right.

think that should be £3,6000

have you tried www.entitledto.co.uk

I think that was the site they def got a zero or a coma in the wrong place, if not I should have left him years ago