Please help us test a new Childcare Tax Credit tool

Former_MSE_Lawrence

Hi folks,

If you've got 5 minutes spare, we'd love it if you could have a play with our new Child Tax Credit Ready Reckoner tool and let us know what you think.

The idea of it is to give you a rough idea of your Child Tax Credit entitlement, based on income, hours worked, the number of children you have and how much you pay for childcare.

Please give it a go, and post feedback below:

Childcare Tax Credit Ready Reckoner

Thanks,

Lawrence

mummytofour

Hi,
Sorry to be honest I cant really see the point of it. It only covers working families and only 3 kids with no allowance made for disabilities. I feel the tool is way too limited.

AsknAnswer

mummytofour wrote: »

Hi,
Sorry to be honest I cant really see the point of it. It only covers working families and only 3 kids with no allowance made for disabilities. I feel the tool is way too limited.

That'll be because it is solely to see if a person is likely to be eligible for childcare provision. It's not for calculating working tax credit, with or without the disability element - it is for calculating the childcare element of working tax credit solely. However as that it what it calculates solely, I do think the above link should be renamed as until you are actually on the page you don't know that it is only for childcare. The link suggests "Child Tax Credit" which isn't where the childcare element comes from, it is misleading.

Feedback - yes it is good. It actually calculated myu childcare provision really well, not far out at all. (It calculated it as less than I actually get)

happymother

Is this just to show how much childcare costs you could get? If so then it would be about right as it says I would get £104 and my childcare costs are £130. I was a bit confused at first as I read it to say child tax credit costs and it was way off, but fine if it is just the childcare element. You may need to re-word it.

EDIT. Just noticed above reply, it wasn't there when I started typing.

Teenie_D

Personally I think this is a useful tool. When I had to put my little one into nursery I foolishly expected to receive some help with the costs and was flabbergasted when the letter came through to say I wasn't entitled to them. If this tool has been available then, i might have been a bit more ready for that letter to say I wouldn't get any help. Thanks

flea72

My award notice states i have no qualifying childcare costs, but according to the CTC ready reckoner, i should be getting £22 a week

tbh, it doesnt seem to be taking into consideration any of the qualifying criteria, it just works out what 80% of your childcare costs are - ie i pay £27 a week, and it says i can get roughly £22

i think most people can do that sum for themselves

I also agree, the title is incorrect, it isnt a way of finding out ctc entitlement, its a childcare entitlment - which is wrong anyway (actually once you click through to it, it does say childcare entitlement, so its only this thread thats misleading)

Flea

pookienoodle

it doesn't allow for the fact that if one person in a couple is disabled then childcare is calculated as though its a single person.

MSE_Martin

Hi folks

Thanks for the feedback.

Firstly you can only see the calculator as we're testing it - it will be located on the

"Childcare costs: How to save £1,000s" page as part of a full article, so when there, it will be much more obvious and have full explanation.

As for the calculations, they're not as simple as it looks. The key is depending on what you earn, whether you're married or single, how many children you have signifies your entitlement.



E.g. some are entitled to 80% of costs up to a max £120
some are entitled to 80% of costs up to a max £40
Some are entitled to... etc

So its not just an 80% calculation, more important is working out what the max you're entitled to is first - we've changed the text so thats more obvious based on your feedback.

As for the accuracy - this is a Ready Reckoner, we're very plain on that, both in the text, in the name, and the big warning at the bottom of every result.

Its actually based on the info that some of the govt hotlines use for the call answers.

The key is to let people know if they're likely to be entitled and roughly how much and encourage them to claim.

Martin

(As for being only working parents, thats because tax credits for childcare are only available to working parents - again the article says all that.)

flea72

MSE_Martin wrote: »

As for the calculations, they're not as simple as it looks. The key is depending on what you earn, whether you're married or single, how many children you have signifies your entitlement

Tried inputting various incomes with my circumstances, and my supposed entitlement didnt change - there must be something wrong, because entitlement would reduce in accordance with income, due to the 39p in the £ ruling for ctc, which would therefore wipe out any childcare entitlement, would it not?

So its not just an 80% calculation, more important is working out what the max you're entitled to is first - we've changed the text so thats more obvious based on your feedback

i get no childcare help (tax credits confirmed this), but as stated above, the Ready Reckoner says i am entitled to £22 a week - how?

As for the accuracy - this is a Ready Reckoner, we're very plain on that, both in the text, in the name, and the big warning at the bottom of every result.

The key is to let people know if they're likely to be entitled and roughly how much and encourage them to claim.

Martin

Yes, i understand that it may encourage some people to claim for childcare, but when the figures given cannot be confirmed i dont understand the need for it. ctc/wtc is based on income and household information, if people give exacting information, should the figures not be accurate?

Also, do people really apply for ctc and not fill in the childcare part, even though they use childcare? even if you dont think you are entitled i would have thought most people would automatically fill it in, as it asks for the information?

Flea

Rich44_2

You cant input that you're working yet have no income, for example my partner is self employed works more than 16 hours a week yet makes no profit and it's this which you declare to HMRC your calculator doesn't allow an income of 0

LizzieS_2

flea72 wrote: »

My award notice states i have no qualifying childcare costs, but according to the CTC ready reckoner, i should be getting £22 a week

tbh, it doesnt seem to be taking into consideration any of the qualifying criteria, it just works out what 80% of your childcare costs are - ie i pay £27 a week, and it says i can get roughly £22

I've done various calculations and it does work to some extent (couple of misleading items which I will address in another post).

Tax credits work on the following basis:

CTC + WTC + childcare.

The earnings disregard is deducted in the following order:
1. WTC
2. childcare
3. CTC

All the reckoner is doing is showing how much your award will increase for adding childcare into your claim. In your own case, if you give up the childcare but have the same income/hours, your actual award would reduce by £22pw.