WTC again !!

50Twuncle

I am still totally confused by Working Tax Credits

Could someone please tell me what the rules say - ie) I was made redundant last T.Y (May) with a lump sum - this obviously counts as income (with the first £30k disregarded) - but this year, my income is insignificant compared to last year - I thought that the rules said that if someone earned £x less this year than last year - they were entitled to WTC - but when I put the figures in on-line - it says NO !!
I was not aware that the actual income from previous TY affected this years tax credits - I assumed that it was just reduced by interest earned on savings (ie Last TY earnings)
I do meet the requirements for the disability premium
Plus one of the requirements confuses me
"Your Gross earnings are at least £15 per week less than before you had your disability" - I have been disabled for 20 years - obviously these credits are not set up for long term disabled people ?

System

Tax Credit applications ask you to declare last years income as a starting point.

Obviously your 09/10 income is too high for you to be entitled to anything however you can apply initially using that figure and then when you receive the award notice telling you your income is too high you can then tell TCO what you estimate your 10/11 income will be. TCO will then recalculate your entitlement based on the estimate you have provided. But you need to put your 09/10 income on the initial application.

Re the £15 per week I assume you are talking about condition 3 (part 4) for entitlement to the disability element of WTC. If you have been disabled for more than 20 years then I assume you already fulfill that condition by being in receipt of a benefit such as DLA, Attendance Allowance, Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit etc as listed at condition 3 (part 1) on page 23 of this - http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms/tc600-notes.pdf this does account for the long term disabled.

50Twuncle

HMR&C website - when I put my figures in - tells me

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This is based on your household income of £uvwx.yz. This is the amount your household may be entitled to from 28/08/2010 until 05/04/2011. This result is only an estimate and is based on the information provided assuming you make the claim on 28/08/2010. This means the amount shown may not be your entitlement for the full year.

The amount may change when your claim is processed and in certain circumstances may be paid from an earlier date (up to a maximum of 3 months) where you (or your partner if it is a joint claim) satisfied the requirements for entitlement. Even if you think that you are unlikely to be entitled to an award at this stage, it would be a good idea to claim anyway in case your financial circumstances change later in the year. This may mean that you become entitled and we may be able to backdate your claim

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Clearly - HMR&C has no intention of paying me any WTC - But you say to send off the form anyway and wait for a refusal - resubmit and keep my fingers crossed ?
Why does HMR&C not allow estimated income any way ?
Rather than assume that everyone is on a fixed income ?

System

They will not send you a refusal. They will send you an award notice showing zero entitlement.
IE: you are entitled to WTC but your 09/10 income tapered that entitlement down to zero.
That will not terminate the claim. It will just mean that you have a live claim with zero entitlement. You will then contact them and give them the revised estimated 10/11 income and they will recalculate.

This is not submitting a new claim it is advising them that there has been a change in your income from the last tax year and that you want that your claim recalculated.

50Twuncle

Pam17 wrote: »

They will not send you a refusal. They will send you an award notice showing zero entitlement.
IE: you are entitled to WTC but your 09/10 income tapered that entitlement down to zero.
That will not terminate the claim. It will just mean that you have a live claim with zero entitlement. You will then contact them and give them the revised estimated 10/11 income and they will recalculate.

This is not submitting a new claim it is advising them that there has been a change in your income from the last tax year and that you want that your claim recalculated.

This seems a strange way to go about things to me........ But I will follow your advice