Tax credits entitlement query

[SNF88]

Am thinking of giving up my job which pays well but which im no longer enjoying and is quite frankly making me depressed. Feel like I'm missing out on my kids and that work always gets the best of me - to the detriment of my family

So instead of moaning about it to anyone who'll listen, I've decided to bite the bullet and look for a part time job in a school and enrol with the Open University and educate myself!

I am hoping this will also enable me to spend more time with my kids before they are teenagers and start hating me!

My husband is on a fairly low salary 16000 and a p/t school office job will pay around 10,000 a year. Would a combined salary of 26000 mean I qualify for any working tax credits?

It depends on how many kids you have. We have roughly that income and we get some tax credits but we have 3 children on the claim and one has a disability which bumps amount up. I'm pretty sure I calculated that with 2 kids we'd get nothing.

The entitled to website is good for estimating it. The tax credit's own website calculator is shite, don't use that.

My partner earns 18000 a year and I don't work. We don't qualify for working tax credit. But we get child tax credit

Thanks.....I did a online checker thing and I think we would get about £150 a month in working tax credits but we wouldnt qualify for child tax credits element (we have 2 kids)

If you can manage the logistics, you would be better off going to a traditional college / uni rather than OU, you may be eligible for some grants and loans, and they don't count as income for tax credits.

If you both work over 16 hours a week you will get tax credits towards childcare costs, that will be the working tax credits part you have seen. You wouldn't get working tax credits if you aren't paying childcare and household income over £17k. You will get some child tax credits next tax year but you have probably earned too much so far this year to qualify.

I've got the amount each element is and how to calculate the taper rate on my laptop, just didn't want to offer last night in case I didn't get on my laptop today. This is how I calculate it, mine is off by only a pound or two when I do this.

Family element £545
2 x Child element 2780
Basic Working tax element £1960
30hr element (if DH is working this much) £810
2nd adult element 2010
Total £10885

Income assessment is done via a taper rate. This is 41% of your income over £6420 so on £26000 they'd take off £8028 (26000-6420 then x0.41)

Your actual award would be £10885-8028 so £2857 pa, so £238 per month. £810 a year less if your DH doesn't work 30+ hours.

I got the amounts from here initially:
www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/tax-credits-technical-manual Click on 'Maximum rates: contents'

Before I found the above it was a bloody lottery as to what I'd be getting and now it's reasonably accurate. If you change in the middle of the tax year though, you need to work out your income April-April which will mean that your salary for that tax year will be taken into account when working out the taper rate. They will try to assess based on last tax year's income but you can speak to them and ask to be given an estimated award based upon what you think you'll be getting this year.

I'm not an expert so don't count on these calculations being correct but it's always worked for me.

Rockchick has just reminded me - I haven't calculated childcare costs as it's not something I've needed to do, but the figures will be somewhere in that link I included.

You need to check whether you are in a universal credit area.

Thanks that's very thorough and very helpful! If I was working part time I would no longer need to factor in childcare cost, which is a bonus!

I would rather go to a bricks and mortar uni but the logistics don't work unfortunatly although the fees are cheaper through the OU