working tax and child tax joint claim

pgsi

hi

my partner and i have 3 children and we have a joint claim for tax credits, we only recieve child tax credits because my income is about £21,000 and has been for the last few years,
i (the dad) have been the only one of us working up until now, but as im am due to be made redundant soon my partner has just taken a new job,
we are both going to be earning for couple of months.
my partners new job pays quite alot less than mine, and i have worked out that as i will be finishing work soon ( end of october ish) our joint earnings for the year will be just about the same as last year.
so my questions are :
1) do i HAVE to inform tax credits ?

2)and if yes, when i tell tax credits will they make us start a new claim or just accept that our joint earnings will be about the same as last year?

3) when april gets here, will they take two figures from me, £21000 for the year just passed and then £17500 predicted for the year ahead and base our payments for the year ahead on the lower figure?

hopefully thats clear enough to understand,
any help would be great.
thanks

skint-student-nurse

hi, i believe you do have to inform the tax credits office as it is a change in circumstances. I think they will make you fill in forms for a new claim but i could be wrong. as for the 3rd question, i think they base their calculations on the previous year so the lower figure is likely to get disregarded.

pgsi

hi thanks for your reply, but i hope you are wrong,

pgsi

my thinking was as we have a joint claim and that we will only earn the same this year betweens us as we did last year that we might not have to make a new claim,
and secondly if they base the following years payments on the previous years earnings we will be underpayed be quite alot so the would end up oweing us,

any tax office staff on here who can help?

AnxiousMum

I'm not tax office staff by any means.....but.....

You will need to inform them of a change of circumstances - I believe they require that you do this within 30 days of a change. When you inform them of the change, let them know the projected earnngs for the entire year. If when you renewed your claim this year in April, you gave them your 'actual' earnings from last year and not an estimate, I think that's where the £25,000 disregard kicks in - ie, you will not receive an overpayment on previous payments as long as the increase in income is not over £25000. I think that disregard applies to the payments you have already received.

As you have not yet finished work, the new figure you should give them would be your estimated earnings for the entire year, plus the estimated earnings for your wife. They will also need to know the number of hours your wife will be working etc. When your redundancy is final, then you will need to do another change of circumstances, again, advising of your estmated income for the year, and let them know that you are no longer working. You also might be claiming contributions based JSA - so keep that income in mind if that is reportable (not sure if it is or not).

Hope this helps a little! Oh, they won't stop your claim, just adjust the figures, can be done over the telephone, and any changes in amounts should be sorted within the week (if mine was anything to go by anyway). I made the change over the phone, received an altered payment about a week later, and the following payment was on time - so shouldn't be any major upheaval in finances for you.

pgsi

hi thanks for your response,

as i said i will be finishing at the end of the month, she earns less per year, and working it out the earnings for the year will be the same as last year, no increase.
have been putting off telling tax credits until ive actually finished so not to confuse them with the 2 incomes,
good to hear that i wont have to make a new claim, with christmas coming it just wouldnt work.

so just the question of next year, my wifes earnings will be £17500 and not £21000 as this year, will they take that into account for next years paymets.