Can someone help me please with ctc and notify of changes in circumstances

[slushy06]

At the moment dp is on a trainne post graduate job he earns 16,000 but gets up to a 1,500 in bonus and usually 3,000 pay rises a year.

The pay rises stopped due to recession we were asked either freeze pay rises or make redundancy's so we froze pay. However dp has recently got a pay rise so it starting to become un-frozen. Now previously we did not have to notify tax credits unless we had a pay rise before six months into the tax year as tax credits said it didn't make much difference to to a years claim and they said it would cost more to re budget half way through the year. Has this changed?

Bump

In general, it's best to communicate any changes to the Tax Credit Office people and let them make the judgement whether it will make a difference or not. If the rise was £3k on a salary of £16k that's nearly a 19% increase which might make a difference to any entitlement. If he was only getting an extra 1% they might advise you to wait until you get the next form before making the new declaration.

As a precaution, try not to spend up to the wire but save some of what you receive in case there are any adjustments.

Ok thanks I always let them know but I am worried about being over payed and having to pay back even though I have notified them of changes.

Because tax credits are calculated on expected earnings but adjusted for actual earnings that's why I say 'don't spend up to the wire' but put a little aside each week. If you don't have to pay anything back you have some rainy day money and if you do have to pay something back it stops it being a total disaster.

There's a CTC calculator here where you could get an idea if the payrise will affect your entitlement and by how much.

Thanks very helpful I will if dp gets a pay rise put the extra money away I think, also try to work out how much less we would have Thanks a lot.