child tax credits - really they just make the numbers up don't they? like throwing a dice

[Cappuccino]

dd2 has gone into her free childcare sessions so rang up and said childcare costs had gone

they have amended it now and reduced it by even more than the cost of the nursery sessions

which makes no sense to me but well

and then they said they were going to overpay me and I rang up and said hang on, no, why? I don't want to owe you any money thanks very much and now they have to write to me or ring me up at home to get my official permission not to give me money that isn't mine

[befuddled]

Oh I hate tax credits. With a passion. They drive me round the bend. I rang recently to put in a claim for working tax credit as dp working again, and was told we weren't eligible and never had been. Except we did used to claim wtc - "no you didn't" sez she on the phone. Ok then...

Message withdrawn

I once rang them up because I earned slightly less in a year than I thought I would and they sent me £££

I said what will happen next year if I earn more - what if I earn even more than you thought I was going to next year? how much less will I get?

we estimate you will get even more, they said

throwing their big dice

I think I'm the only person in the world to never have had a problem with them. Each change of circumstances I've rung them and they have changed it and sent out a new summary. So far so good. Which is grand really as I would not have been able to survive the last year without them. As in really wouldn't.

Anyway just to point out that it is infuriating when it goes wrong. It is infuriating when you get an incompetent monkey on the phone but don't let it put people off applying for them, those credits can be lifesavers.

oh mellowma

I don't know why on earth they would decide to overpay me for no reason

I honestly think now that dd is out of nursery I am going to try to save the tiny amount that they do send us, just in case they ask for it back at the end of the year

I have heard so many horror stories; and they have messed up my info more than once. For 2 years they thought my 7 year old dd1 was going to nursery, and got really shirty when I suggested that they had got it wrong

But they couldn't just alter the name to dd2s, no

we had to apply all over again

Indith I do see what you mean

but I do not understand the figures at all

I do honestly think they just write random numbers on paper planes and throw them to each other across the office

They just chucked me £913 on Thursday. I presume because of a mistake with my records from 2003/4. But I think it's too much and why didn't they take it off what i was owed? No letter explaining. Rang helpdesk to speak to lovely woman who just assured me that yes, it was correct to reverse an underpayment (that wasn't an underpayment, they simply told me I owed them money). So I just said 'ok, thankyou' and rang off because it's more trouble than it's worth. Money safely stashed in savings account for now.

It is more complicated when you are self-employed I think. DH is and his earnings very from year to year.

I am self employed and I always tell them I am going to earn more than I will so that when I get my actual earnings they don't come after me for money

sometimes they send me it instead

I just don't get this childcare element

I try to work out how it can possibly work and my head starts to smoke

i started a thread in chat about it. i don't understand how you have to have a degree in advanced mathematics to figure out what you're supposed to get!

for example - dh got 2 pay rises in the last financial year. i phoned and told them about both. the first one they didn't put on (then got very angry when i told them they'd messed up) so they ended up overpaying us by £80 which we are paying back by £2 a week!! the 2nd pay rise they did take account of, but put it from April '07 to April '08, when in fact it started in Jan '08. So i had to phone them back with dh's gross salary for the financial year, which was his current salary divided by 12 then multiplied by 4, then added on to his gross earnings for April '07 to Dec '07.

oh yes fio that is another thing the endless duplicate letters

the bank doesn't think that me and dh need his and hers statements so why do they?

Can anyone advise me on chld Tax credits please?

I applied last June (2007) and heard nothing from them, when I called to chase in December (!!) they told me I had 'got lost on the system and my case was passed to a team leader'

Since then I have called them every other day to find out what was happening and have been told every time I just have to wait.

Is this normal?

They have been paying me £825 a month for the past year!!!!

This is a massive overpayment as DH works FT in a well paid job and ATM I dont work at all.

Despite numerous correspondances with them they still pay me this amount so I have stuck it in a high interest account and will wait for them to tell me they have overpaid me!!

you do need a degree to work it out and I still havent worked it out. Heaven help you if English is your second language!!

I always told them when my earnings due to childminding went up or down, and even when they went up they still insisted on giving me more money. At one point i was getting £45.00 a week. Then of course they wrote and told me they weren't paying me for x amount of months becasue they had over paid me. Even though I had told them every single time my earning changed and they wrote to me and said "they had adjusted my amount to take into consideration my new earnings etcetc", and even though I queried, in wirting every rise in money.
All I can say is that we are in teh fortunate position ofnot relying on them, it must be hell for those of you who do rely on them every week and they mess around like that.

calzone - 1 friend of mine, both her and her DH worked full time, paid a CM almost £450 a month. They have 3 children, an 11 year old and 2 under 5. They get nothing, not even the basis £10, odd a week. he is a sgt in the army, she is a clerk.
another friend of mine, who is a legal secretary and has a DH who is a Brigadier in the army (so on pretty good pay), have a 14 year old and a 10 year old and pay £30 a week childcare get almost £300 a month!
Stupid isn't it

It just doesnt make sense at all.

I dread those letters, in duplicate, coming through the door because I cannot make head nor tail of them.

Am not even sure what CTC is!

WTC is for some who work at least 16 hours a week and pay childcare and so this is to help pay for childcare.

I think.

But CTC???????????????????????

Can I suggest, in the case of those people calling to check if their recieved amounts are correct, that they take the name of the person they are talking to and note it down along with the date and the office?

I dont know if this works at tax Credits, but anytime I have a query with any organisation and it looks like they are going to offer me anything in my favour (I am a big fan of complaining lol) I always say "Can I just ask your name? You've been very helpful" then say "Thank you very much (x), that's great"

I also usually ask if they can send me details in writing (but I WOULDNT expect that from TC people!)
This way, if they try to claim an overpayment you can refer them to the phone call and give them the name of the advisor you spoke to.

I will be claiming CTC when DD is born in April, so fingers crossed!

I was told that they record each call & if you have the date you called & you gave your NIno they can trace your call to prove what you were told

Before I started work we were paid £545 per year for 2 children - no childcare

Friends with lower income, 3 children, no childcare costs were paid £545 per year.

Other friends both working so presumably higher income but only one child were paid...

...can you guess?...

...that's right - £545 per year.

I was jolly pleased when I went back to work and we didn't have to claim any moer - it's STOOPID.