Tax credits and starting college

justmel

Hi all,
my son who is 16 starts his full time college course tommorow,i called tax credits a long time ago to let them know this and they said my payments would continue.

Went to collect them today and noticed a reduction,i called them back and they said that it was because all children drop off the claim on the 31st August and then are readded on the 1st September,apparently this happens every year?

Anyway i asked when i could expect to get some money for my son and was told 'when the computer has processed it' and that they have 'absolutely no idea' how long that might take.

I know i will get it backdated but it's not much help now,my question is to anyone who has experienced the same thing how long roughly did you have to wait before payments started again?

TIA for any help x

desperate_for_advice_2

Hey justmel.

I am not in the same circumstance as you, but I have been waiting for money from the tax credits since May this year, I wouldn't hold your breath. Hopefully though in your case it will be something and nothing and will sort itself out quickly. Meanwhile, keep a written record of every conversation you have with them, it may be useless, but on the other hand it could help you in future should there be more problems with them.

I hope you get more luck than I am.

justmel

Thankyou for the reply desperate for help and i really hope you get yours sorted out soon too

When i called them to tell them about this they just said it would carry on,i had no idea that we would have a sudden shortfall in our weekly money and we really do rely on that money,they never warned me about this and the part that upsets me the most is not knowing how long it will be until we get anything for him,i can't feed him on backpay and it's so horrible not knowing how long this is going to go on for x

amani_2

I experienced this last year, it only took a week to be sorted out. I have the same situation this year. The lady at tax credits said that they children would drop of the claim on the 31st august, but would be re-enstated on the 1st September. But tax credits seem too be struggling to get payments out this year on time. So we will have to just wait and see what next week brings

justmel

Thankyou amani,i did call them back and said that i couldn't understand why they couldn't give me a rough idea of how long it would take and they said there is no timeline but hopefully a few days,i am thinking more along the lines of hopefully next week.

Here's hoping it wont be too long for any of us

joanne_d_3

justmel wrote: »

Hi all,
my son who is 16 starts his full time college course tommorow,i called tax credits a long time ago to let them know this and they said my payments would continue.

Went to collect them today and noticed a reduction,i called them back and they said that it was because all children drop off the claim on the 31st August and then are readded on the 1st September,apparently this happens every year?

Anyway i asked when i could expect to get some money for my son and was told 'when the computer has processed it' and that they have 'absolutely no idea' how long that might take.

I know i will get it backdated but it's not much help now,my question is to anyone who has experienced the same thing how long roughly did you have to wait before payments started again?

TIA for any help x

Hi Justmel.

Your situation sounds just like mine !

My daughter knew that she would be continuing in education and so many MANY weeks ago i called the tax credits office up to tell them . They told me the same thing as they told you , that my "old" claim would stop on 31st August and that my "new" claim would simply start the next day......

My daughter then decided at very short notice that she was going to change her place of study and so i thought it best to keep tc office up to date.....

I telephoned them today to tell them that my daughter was still going to be studying at NVQ level but that she would be at a different place of study.....

imagine my horror when the lady on the phone said ok we will update your claim and any money owed to you between now and your award being recalculated will be back dated...

I said "but i told you WEEKS ago that my daughter would be continuing in education and you told me WEEKS ago that you would update my claim and yet you have not bothered?"

So , Justmel , the end result is i have been told that my payment which is due TOMORROW is going to be HALF the amount that it usually is (tomorrows payment is minus the amount i receive for my 16 year daughter and the disability premium is receive for her as she is in receipt of DLA).

To say im pee'd is an understatement !

I gave them enough notice that she would be continuing in education......why couldnt they have it sorted by now ?

dundeediva

Joanne d I think you'll find that the system doesn't recalculate the award until today regardless of when you informed TCO of the change. The advisers have NO facility to change this an it's not their fault. You may want to remember that this year there are thousands more claims than previous years but thanks to budget cuts their are less staff and having a go and moaning at advisers on the phone doesn't help the situation! I understand that it can be hard getting less money than expected but it will be recalculated (usually in a couple of days) and you WILL get it backdated!

someonehadmyusername

when you make this change, it does get updated but cant take effect til the change happens on 1st sept
you have claimed for children til 31 aug and the change from today will go through as if you had called and reported a new change today
normally not long at all
it is a system process, not advisor error
happens every year regardless

justmel

Thankyou to everyone for the replies,this is the first time i have gone through this so it was a bit of a shock and at least next time i will know how things work and be prepared for it.

I have a gut feeling that payments for my son may well resume next week when i get the usual payment that includes my other children and if i am right i am guessing that this weeks missing money will go in with that too,that would seem to make sense.

AnxiousMum

I only ever had tax credits monthly - and never noticed any missing payments for either of the two that have stayed on at sixth form. Maybe that's just because I had it paid monthly though? If so, I guess it means it didn't take 'weeks' to switch over, as otherwise it would've been apparent on my payments?

mcnolegs

someonehadmyusername wrote: »

when you make this change, it does get updated but cant take effect til the change happens on 1st sept
you have claimed for children til 31 aug and the change from today will go through as if you had called and reported a new change today
normally not long at all
it is a system process, not advisor error
happens every year regardless

Because there's so many children staying on at school/college and everyone lets tax credits know at different times their system puts all the 16 year olds on at the same time, usually the 1st weekend after 31 August. People do tend to have payments affected but only usually a week max. Everything should be sorted next week. As other people have said it isn't anything to do with the people on tax credits, it's just the way their system works