Worse off!

dugdale_2

deedee71.
Look again at your tax credit calculations please.
All calculations are based on your previous years income and unless your earnings have increasd by £16,000 or more this year they shouldn't decrease next year.

deedee71

I've checked with the Tax Credits office....my figures are correct, but won't come into effect until April 2010, not 2009 as I thought.

[Deleted User]

deedee71 wrote: »

I've checked with the Tax Credits office....my figures are correct, but won't come into effect until April 2010, not 2009 as I thought.

Deedee, I work for tax credits and this is NOT how they are calculated.

IF you want to do a little investigation work you will find the withdrawal rate of tax credits is 39%. Meaning that every £1 you earn above the first income threshold of £6420 you lose 39p from your overall award of tax credits until you are left with the basic family element of approx £547 a year. Once you reach £50k it reduced by approx 6/7p in the £1.

So to lose £200 per month (£2400 for the year) you must have an income of £6k more in 2009/10 than you did in 2008/09.

[Deleted User]

dugdale wrote: »

deedee71.
Look again at your tax credit calculations please.
All calculations are based on your previous years income and unless your earnings have increasd by £16,000 or more this year they shouldn't decrease next year.

Incorrect, there is a £25,000 disregard above the income declared for the previous year.

See this LINK for an explanation of the £25k disregard.

[Deleted User]

deedee71 wrote: »

Sadly, this isn't how tax credits work!!! A £2.5k rise means a £4.5k loss in benefits approx (in my circumstances)

Which benefits do you mean? A £2.5k rise in earnings would mean a tax credit reduction of just £975 for the year (£18.75 p/w or £75 p/4wks).

elljay

No idea if this helps but a similar thing happened to me (though not with the threat of redundancy) and I was told that it was because I had some 'development issues'. Basically I was the best person for the job but needed some more training and development to bring me up to being the perfect person for the job (or something like!!) so I started on the lower salary but within a couple of years had caught up with others on the same level through the normal increments and a regrading along the way.

Having said that I was also once in the other situation you mentioned, where you can't get a payrise because it would be unfair on someone else. In my case the 'someone else' did a different job and also worked fewer hours, but they were concerned she might see my payslip so I had to be paid less. Barmy, I didn't stay there long.

Some strange things happen out there in the world of work!!

Liz

Pete111

subsoniccoyote wrote: »

Deedee, I work for tax credits and this is NOT how they are calculated.

IF you want to do a little investigation work you will find the withdrawal rate of tax credits is 39%. Meaning that every £1 you earn above the first income threshold of £6420 you lose 39p from your overall award of tax credits until you are left with the basic family element of approx £547 a year. Once you reach £50k it reduced by approx 6/7p in the £1.

So to lose £200 per month (£2400 for the year) you must have an income of £6k more in 2009/10 than you did in 2008/09.

Firstly. Well done for helping the OP out.

Secondly, thank you for brilliantly illustrating the redistributionist farce that is tax credits! (sorry, I realise I'm slagging off your employer...... but it's a pet peeve)

OP. Sounds like your company are skirting very close to the wind indeed re this whole sorry affair (and the managers comments re the office share are laughably sexist if correct). If you are in fact £200 a month worse off. you could:

a) Stand your ground and demand what was offered. This may be the catalyst for a big fight but you may have some grounds to do so re equal pay + sex discrimination (liaise with ACAS first). To try to avoid this you may initially wish to take a softer and more ingenious approach as outlined by daska

b) Ask that you retain your current salary but otherwise gain the promotion (though this is probably short termist in nature...) Are there any other non financial perks they could offer you - ie a parking space or extra holiday that may make up for the salary freeze in part?

deedee71

My Income for the remainder of this year will go up £2.5k but for the whole tax year next year will be £5k. I've phoned the Tax Credit office 3 times now.....and in 2010 my total household income is going to reduce by £200 (unless I can negotiate a payrise!).

Elljay - it's good to know it's not just me!

kalaika

deedee71 wrote: »

...The senior manager's words when I raised it were "she (HR woman) shouldn't have opened her mouth" Then he went on to say it would be unfair on the man I share an office with if I was paid that salary, as he has been there longer......although he does a completely different job!...

This is not your concern. It is completely irrelevant to you was this other guy is earning and whether it is unfair on him.

The point is that if you (and all the other candidates) were told at the interview that the starting salary for the position was £X then this is what you should be receiving unless you agree some other deal (for example if you had agreed £3,400 less salary but with added benefits instead such as car, health insurance, etc) You need to contact ACAS and stand your ground.

deedee71

Pete, you're right they are foreign-owned and skirt the wind on a few issues. I guess I just have to knuckle down, get the experience and either negotiate a payrise or move on.