Working Tax Credits whilst on Maternity Leave - any advice?

[misshoohaa]

I have a financial question if anyone can help, I've been looking into working tax credit as I'm the main earner in our house so a bit worried about £££ when our first comes along in June.

At present our combined income is over the £40 k threshold, together we earn about £47,000 per year. However when the baby is born I'll be on maternity leave so our income from April 2011 to April 2012 will be considerable less about £30 k for the year.

Will they only look at the previous year (so April 10 - April 11) and deem us not eligible or will they base it on the estimated income of the year we are in?

I don't think we will have any childcare costs as plan on staying home with the baby for as long as we can manage.

Everything I read and the calculator seems to base it on the year previous which doesn't help me at all, we're by no means struggling but will not have much left at the end of each month as it stands, so its a bit worrying when you look at all of the outgoings and realise we've got about £100 left each month!

Any help appreciated, I realise you can ring the help line but thought someone here might be able to simplify the process for me!

WTC is capped at around £18k for a couple, with one child anything over £25K will mean basic tax credits only. New rules also come into play soon so earners over £40k with one child will not qualify for any tax credits.

Sorry I won't be able to answer as I'd be interested to find out about this as well, as we are in a similar situation to yours misshoohaa, although our combined income is slightly less (c.44k/pa).

I've been trying to find answers to the same question as you, i.e do they decide whether you're eligible based on your income in 2010-11 or will they look at how much you'll get whilst on maternity leave... Unfortunately I haven't been able to find anything yet so would be grateful for any help..