child tax credit-how much will i get?

caroline83

Just wondering if anyone can advise me on child tax credit...
My partner moved in last year when he was working-his income for the year was £14,000. Now he has been made redundant is on jobseekers allowance, I'm a full time student and as it's now the summer break I have no income as the student loans don't support you over summer. So me and my partner and my two children all have to live off £90 Jobseekers allowance a week apart from my child tax credits which are just being sorted. I'm worried that as my child tax credit is based on last years income we are going to get much less which will hit us hard as we are paying off council tax & electric debts.

Our total income for last year before tax was £14,000. Does anyone know how much your income has to be before they affect child tax credit? I think i use to get around £84 tax credit a week when my income was 0 (as they don't count student loan as income) sorry if this doesn't make sense but if it does, any advice would be appreciated!

Breast_Cancer_Survivor

caroline83 wrote: »

Just wondering if anyone can advise me on child tax credit...
My partner moved in last year when he was working-his income for the year was £14,000. Now he has been made redundant is on jobseekers allowance, I'm a full time student and as it's now the summer break I have no income as the student loans don't support you over summer. So me and my partner and my two children all have to live off £90 Jobseekers allowance a week apart from my child tax credits which are just being sorted. I'm worried that as my child tax credit is based on last years income we are going to get much less which will hit us hard as we are paying off council tax & electric debts.

Our total income for last year before tax was £14,000. Does anyone know how much your income has to be before they affect child tax credit? I think i use to get around £84 tax credit a week when my income was 0 (as they don't count student loan as income) sorry if this doesn't make sense but if it does, any advice would be appreciated!

Hi Caroline, You should phone the Tax Credit helpline & tell them your income has changed & they will adjust your claim now rather than waiting till the end of the Tax year for them to do so.

caroline83

Hiya,
Thanks, have done that and they said it is based on last year's income. They also couldn't tell me what I would be entitled to, i'll have to wait til they send award notice

Breast_Cancer_Survivor

caroline83 wrote: »

Hiya,
Thanks, have done that and they said it is based on last year's income. They also couldn't tell me what I would be entitled to, i'll have to wait til they send award notice

That sounds very unhelpful for a helpline, they expect you to tell them when your income goes up but they don't want to know when it goes down??

Sorry I couldnt help, im sure someone will be on later that will be anble to, goodluck.

brians_daughter

you can give them an estimate of this years income, and they will accept that, be warned tho the 25 disregard is not applicable so if you say you will earn 10k and actually earn 10,500 it will result in overpayment, better to over estimate and get a sum off them at year end for underpayment than end up with an over payment

mummytofour

Phone them up again. When you give them new details it takes a day or two for the system to up date. I am sure you tax credits wont go down anyway as you income is so low you should get max entitlement to tax credits.

alwaysonthego_2

Tax credits for 2 children for someone on a very low income is usually about £90 per week.

DreamerV

For ctc the 1st income threshold is £16040. Anything at this level or below will result in a maximum child tax credit award. From what you're saying, it sounds like you would already have been on maximum ctc based on your income, and same would go for now. You might of course get less a week if the system has given you some one off payments when you've changed various circumstances (this is actually in your favour as you have money with you sooner....indeed some people make changes constantly to throw off lots of one off payments, although invariably they complain a few months later when they're left with only a few £s a week lol). You might also get a bit less if you're paying back any overpayments cross year.