Confused about unexpected extra Tax Credits

[ConstantlyJuggling]

On the 15th of Feb I receieved an unexpected payment from Child Tax Credits 8 days earlier and quite abit more than I should have.

We use the child tax credits to help us with childcare costs so i have put it into our childcare account but im confused as to why this has arrived so early and so much more than we have always got since i went back to work over a year ago!

Im wondering if its a tax rebate? but surely they would have told us before just putting it our account?

Anyone else have anything similar happen?

My friend's daughter has just received £3000+ catch-up payments after making a change to her claim over a year ago.

CJ phone and ask the,. They did this to me a couple of years ago and tried to fob me off by saying it was a catch up payment and the rest of my payments would be adjusted too (to a lower amount).
Then they did the same thing the next month (paid me twice on different amounts) and admitted that time it was a computer error and I'd be aske dto pay back the overpayment later or my following years payments would be reduced.

Like you I put the money into a separate account as my biggest childcare costs are in summer hols. So I sent one lot of £400 back straight awat and then I had the other there to pay them back when they calculated their error over payment at the end of the year.