tax credits not sorted for this year collage students

space_rider

scat wrote: »

Still waiting for the shortfall from last week but my weekly payment ( paid yesterday ) has gone back up which would suggest they've processed me! Wouldn't you normally expect to get the shortfall paid first? My new payment amount is a couple of pounds less than it was before as well.

I`ve had my payment for my 16 year old on Tuesday and I noticed that its a less than it was pre 31st August and there is no backdated payment either. I don`t understand why up to the 31st August they paid a certain amount and then when they go back to school/college they actually pay less!

This is my 3rd child staying on after 16 and I never noticed any problems before. Guess it maybe that because things have gone up I notice what I haven`t got in my account more!

Not heard a thing from EMA either.

scat

space_rider wrote: »

I`ve had my payment for my 16 year old on Tuesday and I noticed that its a less than it was pre 31st August and there is no backdated payment either. I don`t understand why up to the 31st August they paid a certain amount and then when they go back to school/college they actually pay less!

This is my 3rd child staying on after 16 and I never noticed any problems before. Guess it maybe that because things have gone up I notice what I haven`t got in my account more!

Not heard a thing from EMA either.

Yep I phoned up and exactly the same thing has happened to me. I lost £50 last week and my weekly amount is now £4 less than it was prior to my son hitting 16. I asked why and was told that's just what the system had worked out the remaining payments to be.. absolutely nothing has changed. Not happy but nothing I can do about it.

SuziQ

It may be due to the fact that they have recalculated now and have found you were recieving too much previously-so they are preventing an overpayment.

My ctc went down as my daughter has gone to Uni,first payment has been taken down about 100 then the following month down to what it will be from now on-I suppose they do it to cushion the blow. The form they sent out details it clearly. I presume none of you have recieved your new award notice yet so that you can check the figures? Once you have those it may make sense.

space_rider

I`ve received my new award notice but not had the time to compare it as yet. But it`s silly as nothing as changed. It`s supposed to be based on income and amount of children and that hasn`t changed. All that happened was that she carried on at school after the summer break, same as she did at 15! It may only be a small amount but as things are now every penny counts.

space_rider

Actually, they are paying me about £3 less per week but why are they not giving us back the tax credit for the week they took off us?

jembie

I haven't had my new award yet but my money went back to normal this week and they gave me an extra £27 but not the full £45 that I am missing from last week.

[Deleted User]

This may be a confusing one -

At the start of the tax year (before you complete you annual renewal) you are paid on a provisional award. Provisional awards are still paid at the previous year's tax credit rates.

Once you complete your annual renewal you are paid the new rates of tax credits.

This basically means that until you complete your renewal you are being underpaid.

The underpayment is normally paid as a small lump sum and increased future payments to balance out the your award.

If you have a child aged 16 before the 31st August, the underpayment for that child is spread out amongst the remaining weeks before 31st August.

From the 1st September you will have already received the underpayment for the year so it looks as though you are getting less money - but in actual fact you are not. You are getting what you are actually entitled to, your payments were just a bit higher as you were owed a little bit from the start of the year.


This is not the case for every award - some people who have been overpaid earlier in the year may see lower payments as the overpayment is being recovered back.

Others may see a slight decrease because they have received an additional one off payment. You dont get free payments from TCO so if you get an additional payment it will cause your future payments to decrease a little bit to balance out your total award for the year.

happymonday77

I have mine now, thankfully.