PhD student and working partner and child?!

GEEGEE8

I think he said the benefits were peanuts, but he still wanted them.. I don't think it was his income he was refering to.. x

seven-day-weekend

GEEGEE8 wrote: »

I think he said the benefits were peanuts, but he still wanted them.. I don't think it was his income he was refering to.. x

Oh, sorry...misunderstood.

Voyager2002

fatbadger2 wrote: »

I agree that ALL income is totted up, but you have to make sure that DWP know that they should DISREGARD certain income (and I think stipend is one of them, I could be wrong).

[FONT=&quot]Advice from HMR&C Decision Makers Guide - DMG39151.[/FONT]

“Grant income of students: Meaning of grant
A grant covers any kind if educational grant or award including

• a studentship"

Also, taken from moneyformedstudents
“Most student income, including the student loan, is disregarded except for some grants and allowances for dependants. This is different from means-tested welfare benefits.”

Also, taxaid dot org “Student grants and loans are not generally treated as income”

[FONT=&quot]Also, Low Income Tax Reform group[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
“The following are all disregarded in working out your income for tax credits: [/FONT]
Higher Education

• Postgraduate studentships from any research council; “

As far as I can see, grants income (phd income) is disregarded by DWP. Are you sure your claim wasn’t miscalculated by the tax people?
I know I am very keen on the answer being ‘yes, your phd income is disregarded’ so I may not be being as objective as I should, but from what I have researched, I think it is disregarded income- which is good news.

I hope someone is getting some benefit (no pun intended!) from all this.

Please note that Tax Credits are administered by HMRC, not the DWP. So it is entirely possible that some kinds of income are disregarded by HMRC, but taken into account by DWP.

AsknAnswer2

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Please note that Tax Credits are administered by HMRC, not the DWP. So it is entirely possible that some kinds of income are disregarded by HMRC, but taken into account by DWP.

Precisely - a lot of people make the assumption that each benefit and tax credit is administered by the same body and subject to the same procedures/guidelines/legislation. They aren't. DWP LA and HMRC are all different departments with different definitions on the benefits/tax credits they administer.

This is something which you need to consider and research fully when looking at each benefit as they will not necesserily be subject to the same procedures/guidelines/legislation.

For example, tax credits define partners differently from DWP.

sarahevie

dmg24 wrote: »

If your partner works 52 hours at minimum wage, that would be over £15,000 per year. If your stipend counted as income, that would give you a household income of over £30,000 and you would not qualify for WTC. Therefore you have demonstrated that your stipend was not counted for WTC purposes!

OP, why have you changed your username?

Sorry to be confusing, he wasn't working 52 hours a week then - as I was at uni a lot of hours doing research, and we weren't entitled to child care help due to the fact that I wasn't 'employed.'

He had no choice but to increase his hours when my funding stopped.

I phoned up about our tax credits today as I would love for us to have been underpaid for the last 18 months but I was told that the stipend income is counted. But I do wish the OP luck and would be very interested in how it pans out for him, I do hope that he is successful in his claim.

I was also told that based on our current income £14250 (based on payslips, P60s) we are entitled to
£105 working tax credit
£201 family tax credit
£80 child benefit

I put this as a guide to others of how much tax credits you can get whilst working for this level of pay as I genuinely hope it helps.

ERICS_MUM

sarahevie wrote: »

........ I phoned up about our tax credits today as I would love for us to have been underpaid for the last 18 months but I was told that the stipend income is counted. But I do wish the OP luck and would be very interested in how it pans out for him, I do hope that he is successful in his claim.

I was also told that based on our current income £14250 (based on payslips, P60s) we are entitled to
£105 working tax credit
£201 family tax credit
£80 child benefit

...

That's helpful thanks, I can pass it along to a friend of mine who is trying to do her sums! Are these amounts paid weekly or through the monthly "pay slip" ?

Linda xx

sarahevie

I would recommend entitledto.co.uk - although it did suggest that we would be entitled to council tax benefit but when we applied we weren't, so it is a guide.

The amounts are paid every four weeks into a nominated bank account.

We were told that the working family tax credit has to be paid to my OH as he is the 'worker'. The family tax credit and child benefit I have paid into my account. We have been using the same accounts for the past 18 months.

I would say be vigilante with tax credits, I am constantly updating them as my partner works over time and I don't want an over payment.

A friend of mine is currently paying back hers, as they have to guess to a certain extent what you will earn the following year and this isn't always accurate. She was overpaid because her OH got a £3500 bonus from work

fatbadger2

sarahevie wrote: »

I phoned up about our tax credits today as I would love for us to have been underpaid for the last 18 months but I was told that the stipend income is counted. ......
I was also told that based on our current income £14250 (based on payslips, P60s) we are entitled to
£105 working tax credit
£201 family tax credit
£80 child benefit
.....

Well that is pretty convincing. But whu do HMRC (who administer tax cradits??) say this:
[FONT=&quot]Advice from HMR&C Decision Makers Guide - DMG39151.[/FONT]

“Grant income of students: Meaning of grant
A grant covers any kind if educational grant or award including

• a studentship"

Also, taxaid dot org “Student grants and loans are not generally treated as income”

[FONT=&quot]Also, Low Income Tax Reform group[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
“The following are all disregarded in working out your income for tax credits: [/FONT]
Higher Education

• Postgraduate studentships from any research council; “

These all sound promising, but, you say the opposite and that is confusing. Thanks for all the constructive comments they are very much appreciated indeed.

fatbadger2

sarahevie wrote: »

I was also told that based on our current income £14250 (based on payslips, P60s) we are entitled to
£105 working tax credit
£201 family tax credit
£80 chil

This looks very low to me. I've done the online DWP check with your income details and it say 2800 in credits??

Based on your experience, our joint income might be £2500 lees than it is now. That is not good

sarahevie

Originally Posted by sarahevie

I was also told that based on our current income £14250 (based on payslips, P60s) we are entitled to
£105 working tax credit
£201 family tax credit
£80 chil




Those figures are what we get into our account four weekly. I've also put it in annual and weekly terms so that you can see it matches from dwp website.

Period:06/04/2010-05/04/2011annual £ weekly £ Initial Tax Credit award for period:£4,403.25£84.45Working Tax Credit:£1,552.60£29.78Child Tax Credit:£2,850.65£54.67 Final Tax Credit award for period:£4,403.25£84.45Working Tax Credit:£1,552.60£29.78Child Tax Credit award:£2,850.65£54.67
I'd say send off your stipends, P60s, bank accounts, mortgage statements, savings accounts and see how they assess you.

Good luck, sometimes lifestyle choices such as studying, being married, having children, having a mortgage don't make you better off financially but they can make you happy.

If you are a couple and indeed you are going to be financially worse off by £2500 a year, then that is something you will have to live with if you want to stay together.