Salary threshold for benefits

[tumpymummy]

I'm fortunate that I have never had to claim benefits. However I was shocked to learn recently that a single mum who earns over £40,000 a year is also able to claim apx £1300 month in family tax credit and income support. I always assumed the salary threshold for claiming was much lower. Is she able to claim these benefits because she is a single mum (3 kids) ?

Where have you got this info? Im a single mum on £35k with 2 kids and qualify for child benefit and nothing else.

Don't get caught up with figures OP.

Have you got children? It depends on where you live you cannot compare the North and London huge price difference in rents for a start.

Well for a start there is no such thing as "family tax credit" or "income support".

Well that's bollocks. Like a PP said there's no such thing as family tax credits or income support anymore.
If she is getting anywhere near that much she must have huge rent and possibly a child with disabilities.

It's a similar amount to what I got earning 17k so it seems unlikely to me!

I wouldn’t have thought that is likely unless the children are disabled.

Who told you that?

If she rents she'll get the housing element. Sweet fa if you have a mortgage

@MrsChuckBass

Where have you got this info? Im a single mum on £35k with 2 kids and qualify for child benefit and nothing else.

Off somebody down the pub, presumably.

Income support is not payable to anybody as a new claim - it's Universal Credit - and wasn't ever paid to anybody earning that much or working full time. Family Tax Credits (which were replaced years ago by Child Tax Credit and Working Family Tax Credit and they in turn have been superseded by UC) weren't paid at the same time as IS - because qualifying for those meant you were working too many hours and earning too much for IS - and weren't that much, either. If you received FTC/WTC/CTC, you earned too much to qualify for HB or CTC. There hasn't been any additional benefit for a third child since 2017, either.

So, apart from the fact that everything you've been told is a large bundle of bollocks, did you have any other questions today? Like perhaps 'Where can I find truthful information about benefit entitlements in England, rather than believing everything I hear in the pub?'

@NeverDropYourMooncup plenty of people received tax credits and income support and still do. Not on a 40k a year salary though.

If you received FTC/WTC/CTC, you earned too much to qualify for HB

I used to get CTC, WTC and HB

@CiaoForNiao

If you received FTC/WTC/CTC, you earned too much to qualify for HB

I used to get CTC, WTC and HB

I didn't. Two kids, 30hrs/week job, takehome about £900 pcm, registered childcare costs. I earned too much with WTC to get anything else.

@NeverDropYourMooncup I suspect the council wasn’t aware of your childcare cost, it’s not counted as income £ for £ . On that income you should have got some HB.

[quote MyDcAreMarvel]@NeverDropYourMooncup I suspect the council wasn’t aware of your childcare cost, it’s not counted as income £ for £ . On that income you should have got some HB.[/quote]
Well, I submitted the claim correctly - I've made a living out of assessing claims for different things.

The calculations were very clear, included the childcare costs in their decision letter and I was entitled to exactly nothing because the tax credits took me to £1.37/week over the amount to qualify for any HB or CTB.

They may have changed the entitlements later on, but at the time I was in that situation, you got bugger all (and lost FSM, so you were worse off even before travel or work clothes costs were taken into account).

In any case, this is kind of straying the original thing that the OP was talking utter nonsense about getting Income Support and Family Tax Credits currently.

[quote MyDcAreMarvel]@NeverDropYourMooncup plenty of people received tax credits and income support and still do. Not on a 40k a year salary though.[/quote]
Working Tax Credit rules - a minimum of 16 hours a week.

Income Support rules - a maximum of 15 hours a week and an earnings threshold.

Yes, and did you know 76% of families on benefits take their kids EVERY YEAR to Disneyland and don't even get fined for taking them out of school, and yet 35% of people working full time can't even afford a week at Centreparcs. Clearly there is something seriously wrong with the benefits system.

@NeverDropYourMooncup

You couldn't claim WTC and IS. You could claim CTC and IS.

I used to get CTC, IS and HB.
Then I lost the IS due to my child's age but couldn't get JSA as I was at college full time.
Then I went to work and claimed WTC, CTC and HB. (At this point i lost my FSM entitlement)
Then my DP moved in and we didn't get anything.
Then we split up and I had to claim UC instead.

Never taken my DC to Disney land though

@NeverDropYourMooncup
Working Tax Credit rules - a minimum of 16 hours a week.

Income Support rules - a maximum of 15 hours a week and an earnings threshold.

Yes I am well aware of that. Tax credits includes child and ax credits, therefore you can receive tax credits and income support either working or not, as I said not earning £40k.

That might include money towards childcare costs too.