TAX CREDITS - AGAIN!

[jessicaandbumpsmummy]

How much did your tax credits go down when your child hit a year old?

My first payment since Jess's birthday today and ive gone from £40.47 down to £28.50!!!!

[expatinscotland]

Yeah, ours went down by over a third.

Bloody things. Glad to see the back of them. Would rather struggle along than live in fear of 'we paid you too much' or 'Your award is now next to nothing'. At least we now know exactly what we'll get each month, even if it is a pittance.

[jessicaandbumpsmummy]

I just cant work it out - just done the on-line "do i qualify" thing and according to that I would onyl be entitled to £8.50 a week! I want to phone them as I have had NO paperwork whatsoever since November last year!

[jessicaandbumpsmummy]

bump....

[nutcracker]

I thought it only went down by £10, i'm sure mine did.

[jessicaandbumpsmummy]

On hold to them at the moment.... god how long does it take!!!

[jessicaandbumpsmummy]

BLOODY USELESS!

Woman on other end of phone " I wouldnt worry that you havent had your renewal pack or the fact you have had no correspondence from us since January..... just keep on as you are and if anything is due to come out, you should recieve it"

Yeah, liek that helps!

[purpleturtle]

I thought the under 1 allowance was twice the over 1 allowance.

[cerys]

they didn't pay us for 9 months and said they had it on file that DH and I had split up in December 2003 . Useless!

[ssd]

Expat, don't you get anything now?

I know they're useless, we are overpaid £1000 and counting, but I don't want to give up with them.

If you are due money get it off them, better your pocket than theirs!!

[expatinscotland]

Nope, we don't get a penny. We are currently appealing an overpayment, which was the result of THEIR clerical errors, so they cancelled our Child Tax Credit. And we have the proof the mistakes were theirs. But the appeal is taking forever - the adjudicator and our MP are both involved. So no tax credits for us.

DH had to go out and get an evening/weekend job when they cut our credits, as we were living on a gross income of just £13,200/pa for all three of us in the third most expensive city in the UK behind London and Bristol - which after taxes and NI put us below the poverty line. As soon as he got working, I wrote them a recorded delivery letter informing them of that and his wage so as not to incur anymore 'overpayment'.

And after the appeal is done, we're not going to bother applying for them anymore, even after this baby is born. When we get the results of the appeal, I'm sending them a letter telling them to cancel ANY claim we have pending and not to send us another pence.

Their errors and demands for money and living in fear that we'll get another overpayment problem when we live so hand to mouth have resulted in my developing panic attacks and needing tranquilisers and medication. NO amount of money is worth that, IMO. We'd rather just both have normal PAYE jobs and then at least we know what we get is ours.

So no, we're getting nothing and never want to deal with them again.

[expatinscotland]

I will also never vote Labour again as long as I live thanks to this fracas.