Tax credits - returning to work - help with results please

[2013vanessa]

Hello everybody,

I´m returning to work in a few months after having had my baby in April this year and I am so confused about the tax credits help we can get. Please if someone who knows about this can help me with my doubts it would be much appreciated as we need to know if we´ll be able to afford the childcare.

I have searched for information everywhere and used different online tools, but the main ones are:

1. The DirectGov Benefit adviser
   www.gov.uk/benefits-adviser?

2. HMRC tax credits
   taxcredits.hmrc.gov.uk/Qualify/DIQHousehold.aspx

Our circumstances when I return to work will be:

Couple, both working full time, joint gross salary of 30.000 pounds/year, 1 year old child, paying 175 a week for a registered chilcare provider.

The problem is that the results are really different depending on the tool used so we really don´t know what to expect…

Tool 1:
Child Tax Credit £62.72 week
Working Tax Credit £212.38 week
Child Benefit £20.30 per week
Earnings £500.78 per week
Total weekly income £796.18 per week

Tool 2:
Child Tax Credit £1155.84
Childcare element of Working Tax Credit £490.85
Sub total £1646.69
Working Tax Credit (less the childcare element of Working Tax Credit) £0.00
Total £1646.69

The only explanation I can find for this difference is the sentence I get with tool 2: “This is the amount your household may be entitled to from 28/11/2013 until 05/04/2014”. Does this mean this amount is rounded for the months mentioned and it would be higher for the whole year?

Does anyone know why the results are so different? By the way, tool 1 is much more complete regarding questions, as they ask you about the rent you pay, council tax, etc, whereas tool 2 doesn´t.

Some help please.

Thank you so much

Vanessa

On an income of £30,000 you will only get help with the childcare element of working tax credits as you are earning over the £26k cut off for child tax credits (unless you have any older children).

You may qualify for slightly more the rest of this tax year due to your income being lower while on maternity leave, but just make sure you're aware of this for next tax year.

Hi Rockchick1984, thanks a lot for your answer.

And then, why the Benefit Adviser is giving me this result? Is it wrong or I am doing something wrong?

And do you know approx which percentage of childcare element could I get with this income?

Thanks again

While on maternity leave you can discount your income each week by £100 so your income this tax year will be lower than next tax year once you're back at work.

Next year once income is around £30k you should get £4660 per year tax credits, which is £89 a week, plus your child benefit. See Here

I find the www.turn2us.org.uk benefits checker is clearer than some of the others.

Thank you so much for all the answers. I have just checked turn2us and the result I get is the same Rockchick told me, so I think I got the answer I needed.