How can I find out what tax credits we will receive next year? Ant advice welcomed!

[ssd]

I know we will receive less, but I need to find out how much less. Is there an online calculator somewhere that will show me what we'll get as from when the changes to the threshold comes in?

Also ds turns 18 in May and we'll stop getting his child benefit from round about then, I'm not sure exactly when. So when this stops, and we only claim for ds2, do we get £20 a week or £13, like we are getting for ds2 just now?

If anyone could help it would be great, I'd scoured the internet and not found any answers and dont want to phone tax credits as I find them hopeless unhelpful.

Lougle - I'm trying to use your calculation but is it affected by how many kids you have? I guess that doesn't matter in calculating the drop.
I have worked George's out to a drop of £1694 ( approx £32 a week loss) is that correct?
Please don't take my word for this, I am no expert . I wish I understood tax credits better.
George : I understand you will get extra housing benefit to make up some of the loss.

Yes, Babyroobs, you have to count the child element x no. of children in the calculation.

OK George:

Right now:

Basic Element £1,960
Couple and lone parent element £2,010

Family element £545
Child element £2,780 x2

Total: £10,075

Income: £13,000 - Threshold £6420 = £6,580

Excess £6580 x Withdrawal rate (taper) 41% = £2697.80

Final award: £10,075 - £2697.80 = £7,377.20 (£141.87 pw)

Next year, assuming all values not published stay the same:

Basic Element £1,960
Couple and lone parent element £2,010

Family element £545
Child element £2,780 x2

Total: £10,075

Income: £13,000 - Threshold £3850 = £9,150

Excess £9,150 x Withdrawal rate (taper) 48% = £4392

Final award: £10,075 - £4392 = £5,683 (£109.29 pw)

Overall loss: £1694.20 (£32.58 pw).

However, taking into account NeedaSockAmnesty's point, then perhaps the clearest way to say it is:

If you pay any rent or council tax you may find that for every £1 your income falls, you gain £0.65 HB and £0.20 Council tax relief.

That means that you could gain £21.18 in housing benefit pw and £4.28 in Council tax relief, totalling £25.46. This would lead to an overall loss of £7.12 per week.

Lougle, are both Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support worked out from the same net figure. Or do they do one then the other?

The use the same initial calculation of net income and excess income, then the taper of 65% is applied for HB and 20% for CT independently. So the same excess is used for both calculations - no allowance is made for the fact that the taper has been applied for HB when calculating CT and vice versa.

Thank you. It's unbelievably confusing trying to work what different hours would mean to benefits. The checkers online don't seem to tally up at all with how I have seen to work out TC's, HB and TCS.

I do wonder how long HB will take up the slack of TC cuts. Until Universal Credit I suppose.

Parliment briefing doc with some scary tables in

I read this as essentially everyone in receipt of tax credits and earning just under £4000 or more will loose a minimum of £1225/ year tax credits.

I knew that we lost a lot as a family, three DC one okay earner, one carer as one DC severely disabled, i'd done my own numbers but didn't realise just how much very low earners stand to be down.

Why are the real figures not in the press?

Why when tax credits just sent me revised figures for this years calc, they made an error, are they still telling me my payments will be very similar from April 2016?

I love this sentence from that briefing document:

The main group affected by the tax credit changes in April 2016 will be in-work families eligible for Working Tax Credit." (Page 9)

Because in David Cameron's speech on 22 April 2016, entitled 'Making work pay', he said:

"This goes to the heart of the country we are trying to build:

One based on the principle of something for something, not something for nothing…

…where those who put in, get out…

…where hard work is rewarded – where we make work pay."

I love it when people speak with integrity.

we are really going to be so much worse off, we will lose £50 a week tax credits and ds's child benefit too, I'm really feeling sick at how much we will lose, we aren't living in luxury as it is, far from it.

and all the job websites I've joined have mainly only part time jobs that require flexibility, I thought I could maybe get two part time jobs as full time is rarer than hens teeth here, but the part time jobs are all 20/16 hrs over 5 days, therefore not allowing another job to be done as flexibility is required.

just dont honestly know what to do, I dont even know if we'd be better off by me not working, but I hate not working, I've never had a break since leaving school and I dont want a break, I believe keeping busy and working is the best thing for everyone, but now working doesnt seem to pay as much as being unemployed....we dont get HB or council tax benefits so theres nothing making up any of the enormous shortfall we are facing..

I just dont know what else to cut here.

what I've noticed on MN and I know it must be because of the posters here, was that when child benefit was cut for higher tax payers, there was an absolute outcry on here, now tax credits are being cut for families on around 17k a year, over £1000 and more cut, and no one seems to be too bothered

as I said, I know its because very few on here actually get TC compared to the amount of people that lost child benefit as they or their dh was earning over the higher rate of tax.

I hear what you're saying but I feel/hope its because the loss of CB was easy to understand.

This is so bloomin complex and very very under reported that people are either oblivious, or think its just inacurate scaremongering by those of us who have done figures because Cameron has said he'll make work pay so its just scroungers that'll be down.

It's not that complex. EVERYONE claiming Working Tax Credits because they are on a crap wage that can't sustain their family will face a CUT.

I'm a part-time care assistant. Who do they want to do my job if not me? There isn't a huge waiting list for jobs there. But they've just voted to cut my income by quite a large margin come April.

And the smaller the income the larger the margin actually is. As they should know, but don't care as they stuff down £39 a go breakfasts. Wankers.

I really don't think people realise the level of cuts their families are facing very sad/scary indeed.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

I think we're going to be stuffed. I'll wait and see what next year's award notice brings but I only just break even now. Nothing to cut in our household budget.
I guess the market for Make Do and Mend type books and TV programmes will go through the roof again.

I am currently unaffected as I am a Carer.
I tend to want to do the right thing always though so had a period of time in work last year until life got very difficult again and I had to go back to Carers Allowance.

What these cuts mean to me is that for the time being I will concentrate on my child. Not going to work if it means we will be worse off financially, it's already tight.

Incidentally when I went back to work last year I was significantly worse off. I lost CA for a while and HB reduced etc and despite getting WTC I still ended up worse off.

If the WTC is also going then stuff "doing the right thing" when I can. I will remain caring for my son and to hell with the Government and everyone who voted them in thinking that everyone on benefits is a scrounger.

Yes these are scary times.

2,719,000 families currently work and receive some form of tax credit.

Thats 2,719,000 families who are going to be down over £100/ month from April. Many much more.

Katherine i wasn't meaning to be flipant or elitest saying people don't understand, its complex. What I should have elaborated to say is people know that there will be a cut, but think they're so near the breadline already surely its not them. They'll only be down a few pounds.

I'm getting more and more annoyed about the next years payments bit on this years calc. It'll be June/ July for most before they send more paperwork several months after they significantly cut payments. It seams so wrong to not even provide acurate easy to understand information to allow people to plan.

I'm going to do some tables to demonstrate the effects of this and write to my MP, local families info service and local council and see if we can get some official information sharing to raise peoples awareness to at least give them a chance to plan a bit.

Maybe i'll copy in mumsnet HQ and ask they put up some information tables on their pages too. I seam to remember that they have a benefits section somewhere.

but saying ^ It seems so wrong to not even provide accurate easy to understand information to allow people to plan.^

I know whats coming but I cant find a plan, we have cut everything as it is, we've nowhere left to cut! Tax credits didnt allow us to live comfortably, they just let us buy food and pay bills, now I dont know how we will do that. I've been applying for more jobs and not got anywhere, my work has no extra hours to give me. How do people on a very low income live with a cut of £50 a week, or in our case £63 as we'll lose child benefit for ds too. I had realised we'd lose child benefit of £20 a week, but now with the tax credits cuts coming in I really and truly dont know how we'll cope.

And we cant be the only ones.

I'm not quite in the same boat. Its really going to hurt, but we'll have food on the table.

I'm sorry that its going to be shit for so many people. You're right its going to be masses of people, 2.7 million families.

You are doing something - you're doing all you can to plan. I know you haven't found the answer but you're a fighter and you're doing what you can for your family and I hope that something big changes for you, me and the other 2.7million families between now and April.

I didn't vote this lot in. I did go to quite an effort sorting out care so that I could get to vote (must register for postal vote in future).

I still feel that if enough people were truely aware of how big these cuts are, there could be more chance to protest to change the way changes are being introduced and how significantly they're effecting the working poor.

2.7million families massive financial change and its not really made the news as anything other than the odd mention of austerity cuts.

We're British not passive doormats by nature why aren't more people shouting about this, unless they don't understand?

I think the trouble is it hurts the working poor, the ones who choose to work in a crap low paid job, usually through circumstances as much as anything else, and IME no one has much sympathy for this, where I work people are either married to a higher earner and think benefits are for the ones who feature on channel 4 programmes or they are single parents and get HB and council tax benefit and the TC cuts wont affect them quite as much as their other benefits will be topped up a bit when the cuts come in

I'm the only one there with a low earning dh and 2 kids, married and paying all bills etc with no help except tax credits and child benefit.

I dont think it'll affect many people, really, certainly none of the tory voters anyway.

We don't really know if cut tax credits will be topped up though. It doesn't take much of an income to cancel they out anyway. And when Universal Credit takes over all rules change and everything goes down even more.

I'm shocked at that Katherine, I had read somewhere the HB would go up when TC comes down?

We're assuming it will. But for how long? And HB is frozen for 4 years so in real terms it's being cut each year for 4 years. TC's the same.

I meant to write 'It doesn't take much of an income to cancel HB and CTS out anyway. I am part-time on a low wage but pay all CT.

ssd- Why are you losing child benefit for your ds? If it is because he is leaving education or turning 18, surely you knew that would happen?