Tax credits, is it going to be worth informing them of this...

[Linnet]

I work part time in a job share.

My job share person left in September and the new person starts tomorrow. At the moment I work 20 hours per week but I am paid for 22 hours a week as I work 2 saturdays over a 6 week period. My 20 hours are spread over 2 full days and 2 half days. when my job sharer left I asked if I could change to 3 full days a week and one saturday and the other hours would be covered by the new person. I worked out what days I would do and what hours I would work and I worked it out as still getting paid for 22 hours a week. They said this was fine.

But today it transpires that I won't be getting that I'll be only be working 19 hours a week and getting paid for 20 hours a week, the extra one hours pay covers my saturday shift. To confuse the issue further I work a 3 week rota and two of the weeks I will be working 19 hours a week and one of the weeks I'll be working 20 hours a week, therefore getting paid for 20 hours on two weeks and 21 hours on the odd week.

So basically I'm going to lose, over a month, 5 hours pay.

Is it going to be worth my while informing the tax credits of this slight change in circumstances or should i just leave it until we do our renewal?

If you managed to follow that, well done, I spent all day at work trying to sort this out and my head is spinning.

If you can do without the money at the moment it would be worth leaving it because god forbid you're overpaid you will have to pay it back whereas if you are still due the money then you will get it next year. For what you would get I'd leave it. Hope this helps.

Apparently, according to DH (he's a tax specialist), you only have to inform them if the change to your net income is worth more than £2000, during the tax year, ie from the 6th April to the 5th April the following year.

You will have to let them know about the changes to your hours and income in next years claim.

I know that when my hours went up, I originally worked 15 hours a week which went up to 22 hours, I wrote and told them about my increase in hours. I didn't want them to come back and say I'd been overpaid so I informed them.

Now that my hours are going down I suppose I might be underpaid, although I wouldn't think it would be by very much.

Half of me says tell them to cover myself the other half says is it really going to be worth the hassle.

As long as you are still working between 16 and 30 hours there will be no difference in your entitlement so they don't need to know. What they would need to know was if your income was going to be higher than the limits set on your last award notice usually 2500 but not always so I'd check to make sure. However if your income will go down, if you don't need the higher payments, leaving it to the end of the year when you do your review will possible mean they have underpaid you for the year and you get a lump sum for the difference.

I shouldn't think it would make any difference.When we first applied for tax credits,they had to take into account last years(when I was working full time!)income.When they wrote to us to inform us of the amount we'd been awarded I phoned them and said our income is now 17k less as I'm currently not working.I thought our entitlement would therefore increase,but it hasn't change at all.
On the letter they initially send out it states that there's no need to tell them unless your income goes over or falls below certain figures,so I really wouldn't worry about it too much.HTH.

You are legally obliged to inform the Inland Revenue of any change in your circumstances. You could inform them of the change but state that you do not want your tax credits affected until renewal.

I think I would just tell them your total earnings at renewal

Well, it appears that my hours have been worked out wrong so at the moment I'm not entirely sure what hours I'm going to be working. the whole things gone belly up and I'm so stressed out by this it's beyond belief. I hate my workplace, love the job, just hate the workplace as there is no communication between line managers. they are all blaming each other, meanwhile I have no idea what hours I'll be doing and the poor new girl, who started on Wednesday, must think I'm a complete psycho as I've spent every day since then scribbling on bits of paper and ranting at anyone who will listen to me.

I'm now spending my weekend trying to figure out my hours as I can't sleep at night for worrying about it. All this stress just because I wanted to work 3 days instead of 4 and spend more time with my children.

thanks to you all for you advice though I really appreciate it.

dont think its a question of if you should inform them its how can you because their line is engaged constantly so even if you wanted to tell them you couldnt, ive been trying for weeks i know their number by heart!