Child tax credits - when do they kick in?

[JenniferYellowHat1980]

I'm looking at starting a degree, possibly as soon as September. My current income combined with DH's currently means we get only child benefit. Come September I'd be earning nothing, so would we qualify for child tax credits straight away or only in the following tax year? Or even the year after that given that the calculator asks for 2015-2016 earnings? I know I'm stupid but I don't understand. Can anyone help please?

Depends on how much you will have earnt over the tax year, so if what you have earnt April-Sept plus DH's income would take you over the cut-off then you wouldn't be eligible until April 2018.

You will also get help from student finance which can (depending on income) include up to £9k a year maintenance loan, help with childcare costs, and dependants grants.

Oh, so it won't kick in if I suddenly stop earning? What happens when someone loses their job but has ready earned over the threshold for that year?

As PP says, it depends what the earnings April-Sept would be.

If you are below the thresh hold for the whole year (April-April) then you can call them and ask them to base their calculations using the current earnings for the whole period. Does that make sense?

E.g. When I was made redundant in July last year I called them and asked them to base their calculations on the current year. I had only earned a few grand and wasn't planning on going back to work (had a baby due). Instead of them continuing using the previous years earnings they used my new circumstances. But I didn't earn a lot to begin with

Yes it makes sense, thanks

As someone has said above - you can ask them to do an assessment based on your current years income. If you stop working at the end of August then your income for a current years assessment will be whatever you earned between April and the end Of August and tour husbands estimated income for the whole tax year.

You can ask HMRC to calculate entitlement based on your current circumstances however you must also accept responsibility for any overpayments that occur as a result of that

As the above posters said you can ask for it to be worked out on current years earnings.

I've attached the tax credits information, I've found it really useful in the past.

www.gov.uk/tax-credits-calculator