Green deal / RHI and tax credits

[movingon]

Hi, I'm currently looking into replacing my calor boiler with a biomass boiler. I should get a RHI which will cover the cost of the loan for the installation. HOWEVER it has occurred to me that if the RHI is counted as income then I will probably loose my child tax credits (which are about the same as the RHI). Does anyone know if the RHI counts as income or if it is exempted.

Also will I need to complete a tax form as having additional income to my salary?

Finally my green deal assessor has told me I use less energy than a typical house of this size because I do not have my central heating on much. This is because I can't afford the gas and it does not warm the house anyway. Instead I have a solid fuel rayburn and wood burning stove. Rayburn is on 24/7, burner on all day during winter. Surely therefore I should be classed as having heating on 24 hours a day which would increase my RHI substantially. I find it had to swallow paying for an assessment which states my freezing ancient house which scores 1 for energy efficiency (have not been able to find any house on right move which scores this low). Is it possible to appeal against the assessment result?

Many thanks

It's not counted as income, so it shouldn't,

Thankyou AgaPanthers :)

Spoken to the assessor this morning and he said the calculation isn't based on your existing heating and his rating was one of the highest he's ever done for a property of this size, bigger than a lot of 6 bedroom houses. So I think actually I was misled by the plumber as to what I could actually expect in terms of RHI. The RHI I would get won't cover the cost of the finance (that I'm struggling to get anyway) but would cover a big chunk of it.

So now I must make a decision - Do I take out the lesser amount of finance I've managed to lline up and replace the calor boiler with a newer more efficient calor boiler to heat the hot water and leave the rayburn to run the radiators (just not sure its powerful enough). This would be much cheaper and would leave funds over to finish my kitchen and bathroom but obviously would have to cover the loan myself as no RHI but means I won't have to leave the kids trying to cook on a rayburn anymore.

Or do I keep looking into finance options and go with the biomass anyway on the grounds it will save me lots of money in the long term and be more efficient at heating the house and hot water. But its a huge upheaval and if I can scrape the finance together for that then there will be nothing left to finish to kitchen and insulate the house. However I'm really committed to making the house more environmentally friendly.

Tough decision!

the green deal is a rip-off as you've discovered. It would make far more sense to zero rate for VAT all such improvements - but that would be too easy and efficient.

do check the loan rate you've been offered - it may be higher than you can get elsewhere. Also think very hard if it puts a charge on the property as that will make it very difficult to sell.

I've not been offered "green deal" finance yet - not sure where you actually apply for that. I've managed to get an offer for half what I need through a personal loan but they won't lend me any more than that so wondered if green deal would be an option and presumably it takes into account the RHI when calculating what you can afford.

Just seems a shame to miss out on the RHI payments. I need to do something as the old boiler is so inefficient and ancient. I don't want it to die suddenly leaving me in the lurch.

As a single parent on an NHS salary with a huge mortgage I'm a bit limited with my finanace options so will consider anything as long as its not going to get me into a financial mess. Sometimes I really wish I had someone to share the decision making with!

Talking to my builder he seems to think the biomass is still the better option for the house if I can sort the finance as he's not convinced our old rayburn will keep us warm enough. Its a huge old listed building so I'm limited in what I can do to improve it.

As long as it doesn't wipte out my tax credits then I'd still like to pursue it. can anyone suggest any alternatives to green deal finance for eco projects? My credit rating is OK but my affordability is dire. thanks