CTC confusion - can anyone help?

purplebat

Hi All wonder if someone out there can untangle my brain!

I'm currently on maternity leave and returning to full time work in March.
Ive been to the CAB today and have been told I'm entitled CTC of roughly £61 a week. We have a family income of just over £40,000, I work 37.5 hours a week and my partner 35 hours. I had 8 weeks full pay then am on 18 weeks of half pay plus SMP till i return to work.

We are not currently paying for childcare but from March will be paying 100 a week. Baby is currently 3 1/2 months.

Ive called HMRC for a claim form today and again went through my details on the phone to see what my entitlement would be and he said it would be £21 a week.

I was asked the same questions as the lady asked me at CAB so I'm not sure why there is such a difference? I claim child benefit and know I'm not entitled to WTC.

I'm also going to join my companys salary sacrifice scheme for £55 a week and my partner will do the same to make up our costs of £100 a week. Will my entitlement be affected when I do pay out costs?

I know the figures are just estimates until my claim form is submitted, just confused as to why there was a £40 difference? Ive read something about getting a higher rate of CTC for a baby under 1, so if I'm only getting £21 a week does that mean that will reduce when my son is 1?

Thanks for any advice, sorry for long post lol.
I'm not very good with figures

Pam
Merry Crimbo everyone!!
:rudolf::xmassmile

Conor_3

purplebat wrote: »

I was asked the same questions as the lady asked me at CAB so I'm not sure why there is such a difference?

One is an advisor with no connection to HMRC and the other person works for the HMRC and is sat at the computer with the ability to get provisional figures there and then.

It's also the reason that entitledto.com said I was entitled to full CTB and when my brother ran the figures through the computer at work, my wifes' income was a few quid over the limit to qualify for anything.

[Deleted User]

Based on the income you have stated the TCO helpline are correct. You are entitled to £10.50 per week for CTC - £21 for the first year though.

If you buy childcare vouchers you cannot declare the amount you pay by voucher as childcare costs to TCO as you are getting a tax break on the vouchers. However, based on your income I wouldnt bother claiming any of your childcare costs through TCO as you would probably be better off using the childcare vouchers scheme.

It looks as though you may have got duff advice from CAB. £61 p/w is the maximum you would get for one child on CTC (before childcare is factored in) so I am not sure how the CAB calculated that figure.

Tiggergirl

It may be that the CAB are including childcare costs, whereas the HMRC won't include it until you are actually paying out for childcare.

It is correct that you are entitled to £1,090 a year CTC at your income level - we have a similar income to you and a child under 1. Once your baby is 1 it will go down to £545 a year.

I can't comment on how much they will contribute to childcare costs as I'm not back at work yet.

shelene

"If you buy childcare vouchers you cannot declare the amount you pay by voucher as childcare costs to TCO as you are getting a tax break on the vouchers"

I wasnt aware of this, i have some of my childcare paid by voucher but submit the full costs of child care to child tax credits. This scheme of vouchers im sure does not impact the amount you can claim from CTC, otherwise thousands of people are doing this incorrectly, and there would be no point doing vouchers for anyone as they would lose money on tax credits award-

so im not convinced this is correct and how true this is ???? Also just because you pay by voucher doesnt account for your income amount whilst this is what child tax credits is based on and off set against, your income vs childcare costs.

Gemmzie

Thousands of people are claiming childcare incorrectly, subsoniccoyote is a tax credits advisor.

You can have vouchers OR claim from tax credits, it's in the handbook but people don't bother reading it.

DaisyFlower

£21 a month on your joint income is correct it will drop to a little over £10 once your child reaches one. You wont qualify for help with childcare costs on your joint wage so the voucher scheme is the most cost effective for you.

Shelene, you can only claim help from CTC for childcare on the amount that is not covered by the vouchers. You are already having tax relief on the vouchers so cant have both that and help from CTC. If you have a shortfall between the max amount of vouchers and your actual costs, you can claim CTC on that part only (assuming you qualify). Tax credits site and paperwork do state this.

purplebat

Ah righty thanks everyone for the info. It seems the CAB quoted me £61 as it included something called the Individual element of CTC which we arent entitled to due to our joint income, without that included we were entitled to £21 a week.

So it would probably be worth my while to go for the vouchers scheme instead. The chap from HMRC told me to claim CTC from now and then give them a call when I start work again to run over the figures AGAIN.

Thanks for the clarification

Pam