Tax Credits again, sorry

[Linnet]

ok, I got our Renewal form through the post today. So tonight after the kids were in bed I sat down with the P60's to fill it in.

I wrote in my income and then wrote in Dh's income and the next part was about other income and it said to check the notes so I did. We don't have any other income to declare but when checking the notes I discovered that I should have deducted my maternity pay and Dh's Paternity pay from our annual incomes before putting the figure in the box. I know I know I should have read the notes before but usually I just write in the figures and that's it.

anyway I digress. It says to deduct £100 for every week that I received maternity pay so that comes to £2600 off my income and only £200 off dh's. Not a problem but that lowers my income figure by a huge amount.

I'm confused as to why I have to deduct this maternity pay. With my income then being lower we are going to be way below the lower threshold which I suppose technically would mean we'd be entitled to more tax credits but somehow I don't think it's going to be that easy. It was after 8pm so I couldn't phone the helpline to ask.

Has anyone else had a baby during a tax year and then had to do this? What was the outcome?

Can anyone explain simply, please don't bombard me with jargon, why I have to deduct this maternity pay?

I will phone the helpline tomorrow but out of curiosity thought I'd ask the wonders of mumsnet tonight.

Sorry I don't have an answer for you Linnet, but I do have a question if you don't mind. Was your maternity pay on full pay? Mine is for 4 months; I'm wondering how this will affect our tax credits once the new baby arrives in December.

I had this and was entitled to more tax credits in 2003 - does it say take £100 off or don't count any earnings over £100 - I'm sure someone else will remember better than me but I do recall it was a nice perk!

It's all coming back to me - yes you just declare any earnings over £100 per week, I guess this is because everyone is entitled to £100 per week maternity pay regardless of their earnings. It meant I earnt hardly anything that year as I was only part time anyway!

Expat, my maternity pay was 6 weeks at 100% pay and 20 weeks SMP plus 50% pay.

So I'll actually be deducting £2000 off my annual income not £2600, got carried away last night. It's the SMP that I have to deduct.

I still haven't phoned the helpline yet, will do that tomorrow, just want to check that I'm filling in the form properly. I don't have time between getting home at 5.30pm, cooking dinner etc and getting dd's ready for bed to phone them before 8pm. I wish the helpline was open just a little bit later.
Still Dh is off tomorrow night so I'll be able to shut myself away in a room and phone while Dh looks after the girls.

thanks bubblerock, here's hoping that it means the tax credits will go up.

ok, update here for anyone who's interested.

I managed to phone the helpline on Thursday morning. What I basically did was a renewal over the phone, which is the same as what I did last year.

The woman on the phone asked for my income and dh's income from 04-05. then she deducted the £2600, (she said that I was to deduct the full amount) and told me that our income was x amount and that the system would look at it and if we've been underpaid for last year we'll get a lump sum payment. So obvioulsy our income is lower than the figures they originally had so I am expecting a lump sum although when we get it and how much we get I don't know.

I then checked that she'd deducted £200 paternity pay from dh's wages and she said oh no we only deduct paternity pay if it's over £300. I pointed out that in the notes booklet it states to deduct any maternity or paternity pay. She got a bit snippy about this and asked which page I was reading this from, so I told her. She ummed and ahhed a bit then told me that ok she was going to deduct the £200 from dh's wages but she was sure that it was supposed to be over £300 before they did this.
WTF? it's in the notes as clear as the nose on your face.

So now it's just a waiting game to see what the millions of award notices say when they arrive, since they always seem to arrive in triplicate addressed to both dh and I, I'm drowning in the damn things and running out of places to put them.

until the next installment...