Is there anyone that can help me understand the 25K disregard thing for tax credits?

[conniedescending]

My DH is due to start a new job soon which obviously will reduce TC but if we phone them when he starts with increased income we will probably have a vastly reduced payment that mth which will be hard as I'm the only one earning at the moment so on top of usual outgoings will have to pay for DHs petrol for work, chilcare up front and he needs new work clothes - at the v least trousers and a jacket etc be ok in the long run but first working mth will be tight

so I was wondering whether he could actually earn more without having to pay it back because of the 25k disregard thing??

But - we've had overpayments before which we had to pay back and it caused havoc to our budget and there was no way we earned 25k over so I'm not sure how the disregard works.

At the moment I have estimated for this year which was lower than last years so I think the award is based on predicted income rather than last years - does this affect the disregard???

If you were receiving tax credits based on the previous finalised tax year you would be able to earn upto £25k this year without having an overpayment (going down to £10k in April and £5k the year after).

However as you have given an estimated figure for this year then your payments are based on the current tax year, which means no disregard and an overpayment if you earn more than the estimate figure.