I feel stupid for not realising that the change in tax credits would effect me

[pud1]

i have just received a letter stating that I am no longer going to get tax credits. I knew nothing about this. I knew that the child benefit was changing and I was going to loose at next year but missed the whole change in tax credits. I can't believe how this government are screwing us

What's the reason you are no longer entitled?

If I remember correctly the main changes this year is a reduction at the upper level and changing the number of hours a couple needs to work.

So if you earn > £40k this year then you won't get tax credits anymore. I think given how left wing MN seems to be these days, if that's the reason then I doubt you'll get much sympathy.

no, the threshold is changing from April again so that if you earn >26k you aren't entitled to Child Tax Credit any more.

for one child or 32,200 for two

and niceguy, I don't think you need to be left wing to think its not really something to sob over if someone with income of over 40k loses £10 a week, so no need for the dig there at the left wingers ;)

and yes we lost our £10ish quid a week

(sorry for all the posts, am at work and sneaking on briefly!)

we've not had a letter yet but I guess I should now expect one. :(

are you both in work?

Any idea what the threshold is for 3DC, Fanjo? I can't find any info that makes sense!

If you're going to lose child benefit next year then one of you must be a higher rate tax payer ie earning about £42 or £43k or so. Isn't the limit for receiving tax credits about that now or a little less? So wouldn't you have lost tax credits last April anyway?

Or the most you would be getting would be about £10 a week which I agree makes over £500 a year which isn't small, but should be less of an impact than losing thousands a year.

fraid not Tonks!

Hi Fanjo

I must say that the whole tax credit thing baffles me and there appears to me no logic to the system at all. I remember my mate ringing them up to notify them of a change in circumstances. He called 3x and got 3 different answers as to what he'd be entitled to.

Anyway, digging a bit deeper it would appear that the CTC limit for one child is £26k, two kids is £32k from April.

The left wing dig is because it's funny how a family earning £40k is considered to be affluent yet if another family received £26k in benefits (£35k equiv salary) then they are considered to be poor.

Anyway, back to the topic in hand and what screwed us is not the govt reducing tax credits but the previous lot for introducing an unfunded tax credit system which is practically impossible to understand, given to higher rate tax payers and paid for by borrowing. Something had to give. For me the sooner we switch to UC, the better.

The left wing dig is because it's funny how a family earning £40k is considered to be affluent yet if another family received £26k in benefits (£35k equiv salary) then they are considered to be poor

Thats because the family on benefits of £26k are in reality prob only getting half that, families on that much benefit are on the whole the ones living in privately rented homes and its the landlord thats getting a 'nice little earner' out of that deal.

niceguy - that is slightly simplifying left wing views there, to say the least

and yes..what amberleaf said, it won't be in their pockets

My oh earns 42k with his bonus and he works very hard for it. We bought our SMALL house at the height of the Market and our mortgage is a over £600 pm. what with petrol and food increases we have very little left over. I know there are worse off than me but it seems that we are always just over the threshold for the cuts.

will you really desperately miss £10 a week? Just asking out of interest...

As a sahm that and my child benefit is all that goes into my account per month. So it's not the amount as much as a little independence.

when your salary is spent to the penny at the end of the month, £40 can mean there is little fuel left in your car in case of emergencies

we've lost CTC too, we'll be able to suck it up but will miss it

it won't be in their pockets

No, neither is my money either. Like most families I have mortgage/rent to pay, utilities, council tax to pay. Only a fraction of what I get paid actually is 'disposible' income.

Pretty much like the benefits family. Plus nowadays with the trend to pay HB directly to the tenant rather than the landlord, I'd argue it's even more like your working family.

Niceguy..so what do you suggest..that the people on benefits be made homeless or have not enough for food? Since you claim to be poor on the same amount they get..should they be less than poor then?

Fanjo yes - given equal circumstances, someone working should have a higher income than someone not working because:

(1) work costs additional money (travel, clothes etc)
(2) everyone who can work needs to be incentivised to work

if you look globally, poor means something very different than we mean in the UK.

All i'm saying is that some people will argue that a family income of £40k is plenty. That you should have money to spare, not complain, count your blessings and you don't need CB & TCs.

At the same time the same people will also argue that a family who receives £26k in benefits (£35k salary) is poor and needs every penny they get.

In my mind, both cannot be true.

It's NOT true that's the only change is it? It may be the one that affects OP but plenty are losing WTC becuase they don't meet the new hourly rules or their hourly income doesn't make MW- becuase their business is new, or becuase like a family I know they each work 15 hours (one parent has to do 16 to qualify) to cope with SN childcare.

£40k isn't huge, £26k is even less and DOES come with extra restrictions- such as there being fewer housing options open to a family. And it depends where you live and family size too; we're on more or less £26k with 4 kids in S Wales and it is absolutely fine but in London it wouldn't be. Neither woudl £40k be I suspect without some real luck in childcare or housing terms (willing parents or inherited house).

Tilly's post WRT equal circs has the key point really: absolutely someone should work if they can ( although with 22 people for weach job you have to be rpetty naive to think it's that easy nowadays): plenty of the poorest people are not in equal circs though and that's where problems hit: changing teh definition of carers under UC will hurt enormously for example (ATM if you get MR or HR within your family you can claim carers subject to criteria; under UC that changes to HR only- with absolutely no guidance on where all these extra SN childcare places should come from....)

I think the cost of living and low wages are to blame and not the benefit claimants