Tax Credits

[jenthelaugh]

Hi, just wondering if anyone can help me!

Since last week my tax credits have gone down by £60 per week due to them removing my working tax credits.

I phoned HMRC to query this and they advised me I'm not entitled to working tax credits anymore because I declared my part time income (DH lost his job a couple of months ago) and they automatically put a 2 and a half grand buffer on it so they don't overpay me, but that makes me over the threshold to receive wtc!

I asked her if there is a way to dispute this and she just kept repeating the above.

Does anyone else know if I can dispute this? To lose £240 a month is a lot. They have messed me around with tax credits and CAB have even told me previously when DH was employed that I was getting a ridiculously low amount of tax credits.

The exact same thing happened to me today. Told them my income last year and they assumed was £2500 less than I said. Low and behold I was right last year and they have ended up overpaying me.
I think you can ask for them to reclaim the money over a longer period so you loose less per week.

What is your current income? Is your dh still unemployed. And what do you mean about declaring your part time income? Was it not declared
before?

Babyroobs sorry, I mean I told them about my new income 2 months ago which is £10,000 a year for 20 hours a week, and that my partner had lost his job, and they upped my child tax credits and gave me working tax credits. But suddenly today they have taken away the working tax credits and said they have put a £2500 disregard on my salary to stop overpayments even though they were already giving me them, which has taken me over the limit to be eligible for working tax credits (I think, the woman I spoke to was pretty unhelpful and clearly couldn't be bothered explaining it.) and I haven't even had an award notice yet.

And yes my DH is still unemployed. Normally he never has a problem with jobs but everything is against us right now it seems. Both kids birthdays are in July and my salary doesn't even cover our direct debits, eek.

Were you claiming tax credits last year before your dh lost his job? Could they be basing your award on last years household income still rather than on an estimate for the 2017-18 year?
If they are basing your award just on you earning £10k than you should definitely be getting Working tax credits. However it's tricky as your dh could get a new job then you would end up with overpayments.

They said they're not basing it on last year due to the big fall in income, but surely if he does get a job I just phone them and tell them and they amend it to what it needs to be like I have done every other time? This is stressing me out so bad. I don't know if I should try phone again and ask for more info and cross my fingers that I get someone more useful? The last girl just kept saying I'm not entitled to them.

I've also been rejected for housing benefit and my partner gets £100pm jsa. We have £1400 of rent, direct debits and debt to pay with £800 our tax credits is our lifeline to feed our kids and put petrol in my car so I can make that £800.

ok you should definitely be able to get housing benefit, I don't understand why you have been turned down for that, what reason did they give, you need to query that.
The cut off for WTC is £17k, even allowing for the £2,5k disregard, they shouldn't have stopped completely. I would ring again.

Babyroobs, I've been told I earn too much. Thank you for your help however I'm going to phone them back, I'm not sure what the cut off was I thought it was maybe £12,000.

Also why is your dh only getting £100 per month JSA. contributions based JSA should be £73 a week. How many kids do you have?

Sorry to query this but could the latest payment be one of those one off payments that is just an end of year extra payment that they sometimes give? Could it be that now you have renewed that your next payment will be back including the wtc. ?

Cut off is £12k for a single person, for a family it is around £17k.

He was told that he would only get payments based on tax he's paid previously and that he's not actually entitled to JSA.

He should be entitled to conributions based JSA if he has paid full national insurance contrbutions for the past 2 tax years.

Babyroobs
I had a random one off payment from them last week and when I phoned she just kept saying I'll only get child tax credit now due to this £2500 buffer which means I'm not entitled to wtc

Sorry but I think you've been wrongly informed. The wtc cut off is around £17/ £18k for a family. Some of the HMRC staff are not very well trained. Are you signed up online where you can look at what payments you are due? On an income of £10k you should definitely be getting WTC even taking the disregard into consideration. Do ring them again until you get someone who knows what they are talking about or try your local CAB if you have one.y

Working tax credits is an arse I don't see the point to it.

I thought you had to work at least 24hrs between the couple to qualify for WTC if you only work 20hrs a week you don't qualify

Horrid - some people get hundreds of pounds a month in WTC payments. I'm sure they see the point in it ! It's a lifeline to single people on very low payments.

Wizard - You are correct, I hadn't thought of that ( stupidly). Yes that will be the reason it has stopped op. Is there any way your employers will give you a few extra hours ?

Sorry op for misinforming you, it is the hours that are the problem, HMRC staff should have explained that to you though.

Ahhh ok so it's my hours.
Unfortunately I can't get extra hours as my hours are pretty set in stone and can't do overtime until I'm out of probation
It would of been helpful if they had explained this to me instead of acting like it's an income based thing not hours!

I really appreciate all of your help though.
It is what it is I guess!

You need to definitely query the housing benefit though, as that is wrong !! Good luck.

As other posters have said, I think you have been given confusing information. To get working tax credits you need to be working 24 hours per week between you, with one of you working at least 16 hours per week.

The £2,500 thing isn't a case of 'adding on £2,500', but 'ignoring £2,500', in that the first £2,500 of any fall or rise in income doesn't count for tax credits, and only after that does it change your award.

The housing benefit thing may or may not be a mistake. If you use the [[https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/bedroomcalculator.aspx bedroom calculator]] to work out how many bedrooms you are entitled to, then look up your LHA rate lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/search.aspx, we can calculate whether you should be entitled to housing benefit (I can calculate it manually if you want me to).