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Original poster

TAX CREDITS - what do you do if you NO longer want to claim them?

18 replies

MrsWicket · 08/04/2009 13:35

Get such as small amount now as 'we earn too much' haven't had any money for the last five months (approx £35 a month) as DH by some fluke got a pay rise. It's really just not worth the grief of keeping them constantly updated of changes imo - so do you:

just not renew the form when they send it through for renewal

or do you have to ring them?

OP posts:
UndertheBoredwalk · 08/04/2009 13:37

Once you're in the system you can't just stop, not easily anyway. (was tc officer and had many people asking for me to do it - we can't!)
Only way you can be removed is to write into head office as far as I know, and no telling how long it will take them to actually getting around to doing it.

Sorry!

theyoungvisiter · 08/04/2009 13:38

I think you would have to ring them - sometimes when they send through the form, if there are no changes then you just don't return it (that's what happened to me last time). So if you don't return the form you risk them just continuing to pay.

FAQinglovely · 08/04/2009 13:39

So are all the warnings that if you don't send your renewal form back that our claim will be stopped a lie then?????

doggiesayswoof · 08/04/2009 13:41

Think so FAQ, they are just trying to scare you

doggiesayswoof · 08/04/2009 13:42

I didn't know that UndertheBoredWalk.

I feel sorry for tc officers - it's such an odd system.

theyoungvisiter · 08/04/2009 13:42

I don't know. Sometimes I've been told to ring up and confirm, but sometimes the form has said if the income estimates are correct then I need do nothing.

We only get a tiny amount and I had already rung during the year to advise them of a change in income, so possibly that affected it.

UndertheBoredwalk · 08/04/2009 13:44

No not a lie FAQ, what they mean is that they'll stop paying you - they will by the way, happens every year. Thousands of people stop getting paid cos they dont send back the renewals. But even if you're not being paid you'll still have a 'live' claim iyswim, it will just be in suspension.
To be removed completely from the system so as not to receive correspondance and renewals, you need to write to head office.
Continuing payments after not sending back the form only applies to a few people and it says on the form if it applies to you. For the vast majority, no form, payments suspended.

hth

theyoungvisiter · 08/04/2009 13:45

I agree it's a v weird system. Last time I rang with a query about whether I needed to declare something the poor bloke on the other end checked with about 12 people and then said no-one knew the definitive answer .

Kind of wish we had never claimed as well.

UndertheBoredwalk · 08/04/2009 13:47

I feel sorry for tc officers too doggie. It's an almost impossible - actually scrap that, it's a completely impossible system to learn. And the guidelines change daily, seriously. If you have a few days off you need to spend ages catching up!
Am glad I don't do it any more, was bloody horrible being shouted at all day. People are mean to tc officers!

UndertheBoredwalk · 08/04/2009 13:50

Tyv, some things are like that, we were told constantly to follow the guidelines obv, but then sometimes there wern't any guidelines. We'd come across situations for which no guidelines existed, and then look completely stupid because an answer just didn't exist.
Although I have to say, what does and doesnt need to be declared should be V straighforward unless it was something completely random and weird! lol

theyoungvisiter · 08/04/2009 13:55

It was v boring and technical - I won't bore you with it

All the poor guy could say was that one option would be more "consistent with existing advice" than the other, but that he couldn't positively tell me what to do, I had to make my own decision. Gaaaah!!!!

Original poster
MrsWicket · 08/04/2009 13:55

thanks everyone. Under - you have my sympathies - I'd hate to be shouted at just because I was ding my job. Will give them a call. Just out of interest - DD2 will be starting school in sept so our childcare costs with be halved (thankgod!!!) - is there a threshold you can fall under that means you qualify for nothing anyway iyswim?

OP posts:
UndertheBoredwalk · 08/04/2009 13:59

With regards to childcare you mean? Nope no lower threshold, you can claim for whatever the ammount is.
How much you actually get depends on everything else of course, income etc.

hth

twinsetandpearls · 08/04/2009 14:02

I just phoned them and said I wanted nothing more to do with them as the system is a shambles.

roquefort · 09/04/2009 18:52

I would strongly advise you to complete the renewal form - if you don't you may get a bill asking you to repay the tax credits that you have already received.

ChasingSquirrels · 09/04/2009 19:03

you could tell them you are separated, that ceases a claim!

QuintessentialShadow · 09/04/2009 19:07

Tell them you have moved abroad yesterday.

mrsmaidamess · 09/04/2009 19:10

I was receiving £8 amonth (yes I know for some folk its not to be sniffed at) but the incessant form filling in, notices of awards recieved previously, predicitons about what we might receive, both in duplicate, one for dh and me were doing my head in, and it just wasn't worth it.!

Thank god I'm earning a bit more now so its all finished. But the system is a joke.

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