5 minute benefit check up Article Discussion Area

jandrewcrook

I got that too! I will phone them again tomorrow but all I tend to get on the phone is "sorry about that mis-information....."
I will update if I have any joy.
thanks for your effort by the way.

entitledto

Just to head off any queries about why the estimates from entitledto and the Revenue are different......

For some unknown reason the Revenue calculator works out the amount you would get if you put in a tax credit claim today, not the whole year amount (estimate is "based on the information provided assuming you make the claim on 18/08/2006"). So if you go back to their calculator on a different day you will find that you get a slightly different result.

In contrast entitledto provides an estimate of the full year tax credit award, unless you don’t qualify for part of the year because you were not working enough or your child was not yet born, in which case the award for each period is worked out. Hopefully the way we do it is more like the way people would expect it to work.

jandrewcrook

thanks for clearing that up!

on speaking again to the tax office, the nice man on the phone said he would re-look at my claim but said I would probably be better off financially working 3 days a week instead of 5 as that would take me into the wtc allowance!

doesn't make sense does it!!!!!

Vital_Spark_2

Does anyone know the situation for a 21 year old student, who has a less than 1 year old baby, and has been living, alone, outwith her parent's home since 2004?

This young lady wishes to return to complete her Occuational Therapist studies next month. Because she is living in the granny flat of her parent's home (for the purpose of reliable, grandparental, loving child care while she travels through from Galsgow to Edinburgh to university), they have been advised that her parents' income will be taken into account when her award/loan is calculated.

In order to continue being the diligent and exellent mother she is, she cannot take on employment until her studies are complete: to do so would mean neglect of her parental duties.

The parents are already supporting an older child who is studying fabric and fashion design in London. Althought the other daughter works as much as possible to earn money towards her keep and day to day lving expenses, her aprents have to support her financially. She has fees to pay as she is studying in England.

On top of this the parents support a younger daughter who lives with them and who works as many hours as she can possibly find but is on basic rate for an 18/19 year old.

Althought, admittedly, the father has a good income it is not enough to mean that they are not struggling to do the ebst by their children to bring them pu to be hard workign earners like themselves. All of this famly are hard working, honest people. Surely there must be some help for them.

Vital_Spark_2

jandrewcrook wrote:

Hi, yes I work full time but because my gross earnings are above £16000 I am ineligable for wtc and hence the childcare assistance! I have tried citizens advice, jobcentre, childrens information service, surestart and pleading but no joy. Why do they not look at net earnings when calculating what you need to live on?
ps I can't claim housing benefit as i have a mortgage.

This is a disgraceful situation. Not only the jandrewcrook's position, as quoted in my post, but all of those I've been reading in this thread, for which, btw, we must thank Martin.

Maybe (no maybe: definitely,) we should all be pushing our parliamentary representatives (well, that's what they're supposed to be in a democracy: cough, cough, choke, choke, on the word).

Any chance of you setting up and starting a petition for us all to sign and pass around our friends for signing? It could then be presented to our dearly beloved, overworked, underpaid and without any benefits (poor souls,) parliamentary representatives.

Alitigger

I did this check and discovered a potential £545/year Child Tax Credit (Family) benefit. Checked with the relevant tax-office helpline who confirmed it after just 5 relevant questions, and although they only back-date 3-months as a rule, I was advised to include a cover-letter with the application form they're sending me, as their might be some leeway to backdate further.
NB: This benefit is never mentioned in an individual tax-return form, as it relates to family income.... and well worth pursuing !!

Tirgar

One small question about the entitledto site. Now this is probably me being a bit dense but when I went through the site I came to the bit about 'do you have savings of more than 6000' to which I ticked yes. It then asked me to enter what savings I had, so in the 'savings accounts' bit at the top I entered 10,000, the box at the bottom then showed that the assumed 'weekly' income from these savings is 28 pounds a week ? which is 1456 a year ? Am I looking at it wrongly as I dont think I am earning that on interest ? (more like 500 for the year)

isasmurf

Tirgar wrote:

One small question about the entitledto site. Now this is probably me being a bit dense but when I went through the site I came to the bit about 'do you have savings of more than 6000' to which I ticked yes. It then asked me to enter what savings I had, so in the 'savings accounts' bit at the top I entered 10,000, the box at the bottom then showed that the assumed 'weekly' income from these savings is 28 pounds a week ? which is 1456 a year ? Am I looking at it wrongly as I dont think I am earning that on interest ? (more like 500 for the year)

It's because that they assume £1 of income for every £250 of savings (£500 for Over 60s) above the lower capital limit. This is where the entitledto calculator is wrong. It uses the old capital limit of £3,000. The lower capital limit is now £6000 so your assumed weekly income from savings should be (£10000-£6000)/£250=£16

Tirgar

isasmurf wrote:

It's because that they assume £1 of income for every £250 of savings (£500 for Over 60s) above the lower capital limit. This is where the entitledto calculator is wrong. It uses the old capital limit of £3,000. The lower capital limit is now £6000 so your assumed weekly income from savings should be (£10000-£6000)/£250=£16

Thanks, at least their calculations now make more sense to me. Now I just need to find the savings account they base their calculations on as it seems to be paying about 20%

Cinders2001

Anyone seen that the website for entitledto.com has changed?
I seem to get different figures now on the new site than I did last week on the old???