Tax Credits

[BigGrannyPants]

I am a SAHM. I have a 6yo DS and 1yo twins. Had to give up work after mat leave as child care for 2 was more than I earned by a mile. My DH has a well paid job, but we have loads of debt. We were getting by as we were getting Tax Credits and Child Benefit. Nothing has changed between last year and this year financially, they cut my TC by £80 per 4 weeks which is a lot to us. I called to talk about it but they couldn't tell me why and said wait for renewal, then it was cut again by another £20, then a week later another £20. I got my provisional award in at this amount, then a day later it went down by another £50. Which means in total it is gone down by £170 per 4 weeks, this is a disaster for us. I called again yesterday and she went through all the details again, confirmed all correct and said payment will stay the same (the minus £170 figure) until I get my renewal through. My next TC payment is due in 6 days. I checked my online account today and it's gone down again, this time to zero! I'm panicking and they are now shut for the weekend. How can they do this with no explanation or warning, this is the difference between us eating for the next month or not! We have already had to switch the heating off, I'm in a real panic and need some advice please. The only notification I have had is the provisional figure mentioned above, all the other ones I only found through checking my online account.

Are we talking about monthly tax credits or 4 weekly tax credits? There will be quite a difference, because with 4 weekly there will be a whole extra payment (13 vs 12 in a year) but each payment will be lower.

Last year if your claim started in August, but was backdated 3 months, you got 11 months of Tax Credits. Your annual entitlement was approx £3177.20. So you got approx £3,177.20−(£3,177.2÷12) = £2,912.43

Did you get a lump sum at all when you first got your award? Sometimes they pay a back payment as a lump sum.

Otherwise, if you were being paid 4 weekly from August to the end of March, it would work out to be about £364 per 4 weeks for that year to catch up on the 3 months back payment?

Thank you @LovelyBath77 I will have a look at them, we are going to see CAB on Monday for advice

@Jumble27 it's horrible isn't it, they just muck you around with little or no explanation or warning. They should have to contact you with a notice period before any changes are made to let you get your shot together!

@lougle it's 4 weekly payments I get, I didn't get a lump sum last year (if only!) the most I've had has been £317 every 4 weeks

Ok...do you have your paper 2016-2017 annual award? What did that say you should have had? They actually calculate your Tax Credit awards in days, so the actual day your award was awarded will matter, because it will have been backdated exactly 3 months to the day. So you award will say something like 'Child Tax Credits: Family elements
Basic from dd/mm/yy to dd/mm/yy (zzz days) £x.xx

Etc.

Reduction due to your income £xxx.xx
Amount for the period: £xxx.xx

Then it will go on to tell you how much you have actually been paid, and how much is outstanding for that year, or overpaid, and how they will pay you it or recover the overpayment, then what they propose to pay you for the next (this) year.

@BigGrannyPants they really should, it's just not fair to spring it on people out of the blue! I wouldn't have minded if I had received the letter before they reduced the weekly payments and gave some notice, we could have prepared!

Hope you get everything sorted out in the end, financial stress is awful

@lougle hope this helps, I am rubbish!

That is helpful, although it makes me curious in a few ways. Earlier in the thread, you said that your DTs were born in 2015, and your SMP stopped in Feb 2016, then you were completely unemployed in June 2016. The image you've posted isn't completely clear, I've tried zooming, etc., but it seems to suggest that your Twins are only being given Tax Credits from May 2016, although your total award was given from April 2016, and I can't work out why, if they were born in 2015. They should have been eligible as soon as your award started, I think? It's only 25 days, but it's 25 days each...I don't know why there should be a delay for their entitlement.

The second thing that makes me curious is that you say there has been no change in your circumstances, but the deductions from your award are £4781.50 for Working Tax Credits and £4563.51 for Child Tax Credits. When you add those together, they total £9345.01, and if you reverse the withdrawal taper calculation: £9345.01/0.41=£22,792.71, then add the income disregard: £22,792.71 + £6,420=£29,212.71, you can see that it relates to a much lower income of just over £29,000.

So the payments sound right, given the amount they intended to pay you, if they split the payments into 9, 4 weekly payments, because £2780.45/9= £318.93. However, I don't think they should have paid you that much, given that you were on £32k. I think they only deducted the
amount you should have had deducted if you were on £29k. Which is the same situation this year. There are two possibilities there. It could be that they genuinely thought you were on £29k and have suddenly realised you were on £32k in 2016/2017 and are on £32k this year. Or, they could have known you were on £32k but somehow have applied the wrong deduction and this has suddenly been realised. I think that is less likely, but anything is possible.

Interesting I got less than you a week and DH earned 25 thousand, me zero....now ours have dropped to 63

oh but we have two dc.

I should've posted the first page as well, which says income is £32K... the thing is it's slightly less than £32K last year as my DH started his new job on 30th April last year and was in a much lower paid job for the first 25 days of the new tax year but I just put his earnings down as £32K to save any complications that worked well

@whatcanIdo1 mines have dropped to zero now and all I keep being told is wait for your renewal pack!

I have just been on my hmrc logging in page to check my tax credits payments they now been renewed and my payment date is normally every Tuesday but on line it's it says payment due by 18th may but that's a Thursday does anyone know wot that means

Are you paid monthly or 4 weekly? Usually tax credits are paid on a Friday if 4 weekly

User it normally means there is an extra payment to be made before they go back to weekly- I have the same. It will then give the amount with weekly next to it when it's settled down.
It will also give a 'paid by' date when there is a bank holiday and your paid weekly.

I am paid weekly every Tuesday x

I remember when my Dc were born there was an additional £10 a week until they turned 12 months or something like that, it was years ago so not how things have changed since then. Could that have something to do with it going down?

Creamy - The baby element went years ago.

They were a year old last July and my claim started in August anyway... still haven't received my renewal pack, so fed up!

@Afterthestorm I really hope you have better luck than me phoning them, all they keep saying is wait for your renewal pack! If you look down this thread @lougle has put together some figures that will help you work out what you should be getting and a link as well. It has really helped me!