how accurate is the online tax credits calculator

[mustsleep]

hi

i am thinking about going back to work during the day once dd has started nusery but need to work out if it will be feasable

i have quoted myself on the online calcualtor on the tax credits webite and it basically said that they would pay us £100 a week if our childcare costs were £97 a week and our joint income was £33k .... we also have 3 kids not sure if this matters or nit when they work it out

does this sound right.... i cannot afford to quit my current job to do this if it turns out to be incorrect iykwim

anyone?

anyone?

If you childcare costs are £97 a week and you have a joint income of 33k its unlikely to be correct. Most help with childcare ceases at £25k unless you have a high number of children and costs in the hundreds.

£97 a week for 3 children seems a really good deal.

Phone them and ask them to explain it. I suspect it's probably correct.

Use entitledto website, I reckon £91.87, if your youngest is over 1. But no childcare costs paid.

To clarify, the £91.87 is child tax credits, not the childcare component. They wouldn't contribute at all to your childcare.

thanks i figured this was too good to be true

But you could put that amount towards your childcare, so I don't see that it matters what it's called!

True, but if you currently rely on that money for day to day living, it won't be spare to pay for childcare, so will come out of wages, which will already be lowered by the fact that TCs will have reduced.

plus the fact tyhat we only get that because we have a child under one

once he turns one next uear we will be back to getting 10 a week

anyway it's not that accurate we get £66 a week now and when i put our details in how i gave them to wftc it says we should be getting less so god know's

i guess i will have to stick to evenings

Phone them and ask them - that's what I did and got given a figure pretty close to what I am actually getting now I have gone back to work. (They do make a point of telling you it's an estimate, but it's more accurate than the websites.)

I found the entitledto website and the tax credit website really inaccurate.

thanks sidge i will give that a go tomorrow morning