tax credits huge reduction

[jillbruce14]

Hi
I just received my tax credits renewal and oh boy its decreased by £280 per month on our working tax credits.........
Last year my husband earned 12052 and we received £350 per month working tax credits . This year my renewal as decreased to £71 per month only change being he earned slightly more 13700 So how comes its reduced by such a large amount???? Thought this stinking Government where going to making working family's better off ....Annoyed

Have you checked that they have all the correct details ie correct income (this year and last), correct number of children, correct employment status etc? Are there any overpayments to be taken in to account? What were his earnings in the 2010-11 year? Do you currently, or have you had, childcare costs that you claimed back through tax credits?

I called them they say Government have made these changes so where do you go from here

That is a truly baffling response from them given that, as you can see from their own website the government has not reduced tax credit rates. There must be another reason that your award has gone down- either due to a change in your circumstances at some point in the last few years or an error.

No everything is the same as last year only difference is my husband as earned slightly more, but its not as if it's a huge amount , its totally baffled me when I asked tax credits why it had come down with a huge bang they said the Government had made the changes...... where I then replied then my argument lies with them, they did then say well I can't really comment . I think I need write to tax credits asking for it to be reviewed...

Have you checked that the details on both awards are correct?

No but Thank you...... I will sit and compare that everything is same before I call them again...
Cheers for your input
thanks jill

How many hours does he work & do you have any children?

He works 40 hours per week and I have just one child

What do you work? I was under the impression you both need to be working to qualify for tax credits?

You don't both need to be working for working tax credits as long as one of you works a minimum of 25 hours (but will for universal credit I believe)

With no other income and one child you should be getting far more than 71 a month. I suspect that there's a mistake in your award somewhere.

ummm... I'm sure this is not the case, but thought I'd mention it since it's something really stupid I have done in the past and caused me a lot of stress for several days. But the answer was in front of me in black and white: are you sure the £71 are per months and not per week? (apologies if this sounds patronising, don't mean to, only trying to help)

by really stupid, I was talking about myself, not you (oh, dear, I'm really worried this is coming across the wrong way)

Well, mine mysteriously went down in May.

No change in my circumstances.

Just government cuts, I presume.

Check your final award notice for last year to see if there is any overpayment there which could be reducing your payments this year.

A really common cause of overpayments is that when people do their renewal and are asked if they want to provide a current year estimate they underestimate and don't realise until the end of the year that they've earned more then they thought.

You say it's your working tax credit that's gone down, but what about child tax credit?

We no longer get working tax credit as dh's income is too high, but when we did, working tax credit was made as a separate payment to him.
It was more likely to be affected by an increase in income than the child tax credit.

I have called tax credits again and they have now said I had a overpayment of over £3000 from last year 2012-2013 and they have taken it off this years award, this is the first time I have heard of this and it can't be possible as my award states the correct amount of my husbands earnings and so on .
I have now filled in forms to appeal against this will keep you posted . thank you for all your comments. cheers Jill