Tax credits query - working hours?

[tackytiger]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone can advise on a query I have about applying for tax credits, please? Apologies in advance for the length.

We have never claimed before, and I'm having trouble with the working hours section.

I work p/t, 25hrs/week.

My husband is a lecturer contracted to teach 8 hours/ week for three terms.

Obviously he works far in excess of this each week as it doesn't take into account preparation, meetings, corrections, supervising exams, pastoral duties etc- he's often out 8-8 and working weekends etc.

If he was indeed only working for 8 hours a week, his hourly rate is something like ?200/ hour which seems crazy. However, as he's getting a stipend I don't know if the rules are different.

I rang tax credits yesterday to see what we should do - they said his payslips should show his hours and we'd need to prove how many hours he actually works.

I have now managed to check, and his payslips don't mention anything about hours worked. Can anyone advise what we should do in this situation?

It would really help us out if we could get some tax credits, but I'm worried we can't apply if there's no way of showing how much he actually works!

Thanks for reading if you managed to get through this.

If your dh wages are listed as less than 16 hours you won't get any help with childcare.
Also I very much doubt you will qualify for any other working tax credits.

Just checked your dh wages you definitely won't qualify for WT non childcare. Wages are far to high.

If he's earning at that rate every week then you won't qualify for any sort of tax credits. Even if it is only term time then taking your earnings into account as well it is unlikely you will get anything.

Thanks for the feedback - we did go through the calculations thing and it said we should be entitled to some tax credits. Can't remember how much or what type though.

So though he's contracted to TEACH 8/hours a week (and that's termtime only, and without outing ourselves location-wise, the terms are quite short), we need to get the university to confirm that he works more than that, is that right?
Would an email from them be sufficient?

I was on hold for an hour waiting to talk to HMRC yesterday so really don't want to have to go through that rigamarole again.

There are two problems
one your dh needs to show that he is contracted to work at least 16 hours a week. An email would be fine.
However problem two is your dh wages are so high alone, £1600 a week plus your wages that you wouldn't qualify for childcare help on income grounds.

People are misreading - your DH doesnt earn £200 an hour

OP, I get what you are saying!

I have had this before myself, and asked my institution to fill in, stamp and sign a declaration that I actually was expected to complete 30 hours of actual work (in my case) per week, on average, not just the 8 hours of actual lecturing! HMRC accepted this. It helped that my contract showed 'lecturing, preparation and marking, plus other duties including exam configuration and some supervision of dissertations'.

I have frequently had pay slips btw that do not show hours worked.

Hello OP

iirc they go by how many hours you are contracted, they did when I was teaching anyway.
I know its hard as prep marking meetings aren't included but that's the way it is.
I can't see how your hours added together shouldn't count though, surely this is 33 hours which is over the min hours to apply.
Maybe I'm wrong but I thought they added hours together and it didn't have to be 16 hours each.

It has to be over 16 hours each to qualify for childcare.

Hello again.

Sorry, he doesn't actually earn 200 per hour (man, I wish!). He earns a perfectly ordinary salary (slightly lower than the average salary for a lecturer I suspect, as he's very junior).
However, it's full-time pay (as in, his monthly wage is normal for a f/t job) so if indeed they are saying that he only works 8 hours a week then he's on a very high hourly rate indeed!

LineRunner that's really helpful - that sounds like what we'll need to do. I will check his contract later and see what it says.

morethanpotatoprints I suspect it is the childcare part that we're entitled to as our joint income isn't very low - it's just that things are very expensive where we are!