Calculating Tax Credits..confused

[twofishes]

To cut a long story short for past 6 years have worked part time whilst DH worked fulltime , have used a childminder for childcare and got tax credits based on the costs of childcare and our wages....
However have huge crisis with childcare as childminder is packing up and have no one else to take DD and DS2 to pre school etc...
Looked on the online calulator to work out what we would get if I didn't work until I got my registation thru as a CM ( prob going to be about 4-9 months) and this is where I am confused as it asks for the previous years income which obviously is higher than it would be if I gave up work and so the figure is not workable financially, when I did the online bit before ( and didn't read it properly ) I entered £0 as my income and the figures would be workable (only a £1000 more per year but really makes the difference!)
I rang them but they can't give calculations over the phone..
anyone else know what the score would be or is there no way of knowing until you actually do it..
hope this makes sense!!

I have never found anything where they will tell you exactly how to work out what you will get. It is so complicated. Which I suppose explains why they mess things up so much.
The website entitledto is really good though, and should be able to fill you in on all the benefits that you're eligible for, not just CTC.

thanks had a go on that website very good..they came up with the same figures though...still don't understand why they base 2008/09's tax credits on previous tax years income, suppose its to try and reduce overpayments etc

We are struggling to understand just as much as you! They have halved our payments since the new tax year (which I think is actually right ), but no warning and no explanation. We are OK as we have savings to fall back on, although I'm having to trim the budget at the mo, as we're in the red every month.
DH fumes on a regular basis that they should just increase the tax allowance for every dependent that you have (SAHM/F, and each child). It would be so much easier!

They use last year's income as the basis to judge this year's payments, because it's linked to the tax system/PAYE etc, and they assume that most people's pay doesn't change much from one year to the next. However, once you've done your form in April and they've decided your award for this year, THEN you tell them straight away of any change in circumstances and they adjust it.

If you earn a lot less than before they will always adjust it straight away. The best way to work out what you might get (but it's not foolproof, so only use it as an estimate) is to put what you're going to earn this year into the box where it asks what you earned last year. Then you'll get a rough idea of what you might get once you notify them of your change in circumstances.

It's completely I know.

HTH

oh right LittleMyDancing thats what I did originally and those figures are workable, so will do what you say , will complete the form we got thru' the other day and return it , wait til I get the award notice back then tell them of changes ...thank you !

MrsTittleMouse sometimes you wonder how they end up with the figure you get don't you?

No worries! I've dealt with them a lot because I earn different amounts all the time - self employed and had a year at home with DS etc etc.

I think their helpline hates me

We had the same issue when we signed up - we had a year when we earned very little, then when we signed up we had a year when we earned a lot more. So we explained that filling in the previous year would give completely the wrong number, but we were told to do that anyway, then we'd "be in the system" and then we'd have to phone up with the correct numbers. Even the woman on the helpline agreed that it just made more work for everyone.
(And twas really sad seeing what we would have got compared to the pittance that we actually did.)