Back dating child tax credits

danielspaniel

i was wondering if anyone knows if it is possible to have any Child tax Credit Underpayments backdated further than 3 months??? my wife and i were messing around with a benefits calculator and discovered that we should be getting around £100 per month more than we are currently getting. we hadn't notified the tax credits people that my wife was no longer in part time employment and hasn't been working since November 2008. This was acknowledged by the Inland Revenue after a quick phone call and our new payments are substantially higher! However, they told us that the payments would only be backdated for three months despite us missing out for more than a year. We are struggling with money at the moment and im sure if they had overpaid us, it would be clawed back in full. is there anyone who can suggest a way of tackling this?

[Deleted User]

If you failed to notify a change it's your own fault as the rules state that a change must be updated immediately. Backdating rules allow just 93 days (3 months) backdated entitlement.

However, in this case the change and backdating rules probably don't affect your award. If your award increased, it was likely due to an income decrease. Income changes are not subject to the 3 months backdating rule.

Tax credits are an annual entitlement so if you have an underpayment for 2009/10 it will be paid when you complete your renewal.

flea72

ok, trying to work out how your wife stopped working in November 2008, and you only just realised you arent getting the right amount of CTC

in April 2009, you would have needed to confirm your income and any amendments, so that your award could be finalised for the tax year 08-09

but somehow you confirmed that nothing has changed, and that everything was correct?

Now, 10 months after signing all the forms, and returning them to the tax credits dept, you suddenly realise they havent paid you the correct amount, because you failed to update your record.

ok, you might have forgot to tell them you wife no longer worked, but to have signed and send back the forms, and it still didnt register in your head, that things werent right, makes it a bit late now, to bemoan the fact they are only allowing you 3 months backdated payments

its over a year since your circumstances changed, what are you expecting, 15 months backpayments?

there is very little you can do, to get anything more than you have been offered, when the fault lies with yourself

F

danielspaniel

thanks for the information Subsoniccoyote. the lady on the phone said simply that they would redistribute 3 months of money between now and April but made no mention of any further payment on renewal. Do you mean that on renewal, we should receive ALL of the underpayments from the last financial year?

ojc77

flea72 wrote: »

ok, trying to work out how your wife stopped working in November 2008, and you only just realised you arent getting the right amount of CTC

in April 2009, you would have needed to confirm your income and any amendments, so that your award could be finalised for the tax year 08-09

but somehow you confirmed that nothing has changed, and that everything was correct?

Now, 10 months after signing all the forms, and returning them to the tax credits dept, you suddenly realise they havent paid you the correct amount, because you failed to update your record.

ok, you might have forgot to tell them you wife no longer worked, but to have signed and send back the forms, and it still didnt register in your head, that things werent right, makes it a bit late now, to bemoan the fact they are only allowing you 3 months backdated payments

its over a year since your circumstances changed, what are you expecting, 15 months backpayments?

there is very little you can do, to get anything more than you have been offered, when the fault lies with yourself

F

We made a call last week as we had forgot to inform them when they sent the renewal notice that our income had decreased due to me being made redundant and taking a lower paid job.

They updated their records and said we'll send you a new statement. Only 3/4 days later on looking in the bank they had backdated our entitlement and paid us just over £1000!! Really didn't think we'd get any backdated payments, so a nice surprise!

danielspaniel

flea72 wrote: »

ok, trying to work out how your wife stopped working in November 2008, and you only just realised you arent getting the right amount of CTC

in April 2009, you would have needed to confirm your income and any amendments, so that your award could be finalised for the tax year 08-09

but somehow you confirmed that nothing has changed, and that everything was correct?

Now, 10 months after signing all the forms, and returning them to the tax credits dept, you suddenly realise they havent paid you the correct amount, because you failed to update your record.

ok, you might have forgot to tell them you wife no longer worked, but to have signed and send back the forms, and it still didnt register in your head, that things werent right, makes it a bit late now, to bemoan the fact they are only allowing you 3 months backdated payments

its over a year since your circumstances changed, what are you expecting, 15 months backpayments?

there is very little you can do, to get anything more than you have been offered, when the fault lies with yourself

F

My Wife had some serious health problems following the birth of our 3rd child which in part lead to her quitting work. Unfortunately, during this period the renewal of my Child Tax Credit form was not particularly high on the agenda Flea. i just feel that if its money we should have had, then we should have it. people are trying to claim millions in Bank charges when technically the fault was theirs to begin with (missed payments, overdrawn etc). are all of these people in the wrong too??

flea72

ojc77 wrote: »

We made a call last week as we had forgot to inform them when they sent the renewal notice that our income had decreased due to me being made redundant and taking a lower paid job.

They updated their records and said we'll send you a new statement. Only 3/4 days later on looking in the bank they had backdated our entitlement and paid us just over £1000!! Really didn't think we'd get any backdated payments, so a nice surprise!

so im assuming you got the 3m backdating they allow, or are you suggesting you got a better deal?

F

mummytofour

It is 3 months and thats it. My son gets DLA and they took 5 months to sort out his claim. Yet we still only got 3 months worth of back dated Child Tax credits despite it being another Gov dep that made us miss out ( we get a primum of CTC due to his disability).

Indie_Kid

danielspaniel wrote: »

Do you mean that on renewal, we should receive ALL of the underpayments from the last financial year?

No. You'll only get 3 months, like has already been stated.