anyone got a letter from tax credits about an extra payment

murtle1981

Rain_is_Insane wrote: »

non of my payments have been due on a bank holiday but they have still been all over the place. I actually got housing benefit on the 15th of december for the 23rd of december. My tax credits were due yesterday but i got them on christmas eve. It's so confusing

i got my tax credits for yesterday on the 24th too! Confusing isnt it? I actually rang HMRC just before Christmas and asked them to look into my payment schedule and they said yesterdays payment would be paid yesterday so was very surprised when i checked my bank on the morning of Xmas Eve and there it was!! Rang HMRC again and apparently it was something to do with my bank

kindofagilr

Ive had this letter now and Ive also had a change in award notice, my wages have changed but I am still entitled to the same amount

SO I used to get £84 every 4 weeks

Now I am getting

£69.00 + £61.00
£69
£69
£120

No idea why they didnt it like that, when I worked out the average it was something like £93 every 4 weeks why they couldnt have just done that is beyond me (they are rough figures I dont have the letter to hand)

Then in april its going down to £43 ever 4 weeks as E is one

kindofagilr

DanE2010 wrote: »

Unfortunately I cant answer the reason as to why the system does it, I know its very frustrating to those trying to budget and wanna know what their weekly payments are gonna be but apparently the way the system is designed there is no way a human can get round the system doing it so its pretty much out of the hands of the staff, which isnt alot of help when they have to try and explain it to people ringing in why there payments have gone down etc. The system automatically does it everytime the system updates - for example if you ring to change your bank account, once the sytem processes that change it will automatically throw out a 1 off payment and there is nothing anyone can do about it, the reason they dont know if you will get the payment is because they are probably updating the system to take into account the changes happening in the new tax year like the new thresholds for income etc to make sure it is calculated properly on award notices, also the deadline for confirming your actual income for 09/10 is the end of Jan so maybe that has something to do with it, maybe once that is applied it will effect some households wheras other wont be effected? I really dont know for sure, but if the system is updated then usually this is what happens.

Hope that helps abit!

That explains stuff for me, however I got my change or award notice as my wages changed, about 2 weeks before the other letter everyone else is talking about, does that mean the amounts they have told me about might not be right?

kindofagilr

JPS29 wrote: »

To those that have had the extra payment can I ask was it in the child tax element or the working tax element. Like a previous poster I get one in my account and my MRS the other in hers.

Cheers

I think ive had the extra payment and I think I just get child tax credits (£84.30 every 4 weeks)

OrkneyStar

I got one (and so did my neighbours as postie delivered to me in error- letters were stuck together!)- just normal WTC and CTC, no extra disability or any other elements.
Normal weekly CTC went in today- Thu, normally always is a Thu!

Raphael

I got one today too. Does anyone know if I'm meant to inform anyone for housing benefits etc if I get the extra payment, as on paper it will look as if I'm receiving more money in January, although technically my award hasn't changed, seems like a lot of trouble if my HB claim has to be reassessed twice as a consequence...

OrkneyStar

OrkneyStar wrote: »

I got one (and so did my neighbours as postie delivered to me in error- letters were stuck together!)- just normal WTC and CTC, no extra disability or any other elements.
Normal weekly CTC went in today- Thu, normally always is a Thu!

ETA I got it last week.

DanE2010

kindofagilr wrote: »

That explains stuff for me, however I got my change or award notice as my wages changed, about 2 weeks before the other letter everyone else is talking about, does that mean the amounts they have told me about might not be right?

Yeh the award notice you recieve in the post for your change of circumstances will detail your new normal payment amount and on which dates and also the one off payment that happend when the change of circumstance processed - for example

16/12/2010 £15.42 CTC this being the one off payment due to the system processing the change
18/12/2010 £45.60 CTC and every week from then on this being your new normal weekly amount

Then you got the other letter detailing the system upgrades and one off payment which would come after you got the award notice, so for you I think its a case of checking the amounts detailed in the award notice, and then any other amount that is different from the amounts listed on the award notice I would guess would be one of these one off payments.

murtle1981

Do these extra payments apply to everyone or just some people? I get CTC (not WTC) and havent had a letter but ive heard quite a lot of folk saying that they got one. I know the government is increasing CTC by £50 a week (starting in the next tax year i persume?) so is it anything to do with that? And does anyone know what the £50 a week increase is all about? Will that affect everyone or do you have to qualify for example???

DanE2010

murtle1981 wrote: »

Do these extra payments apply to everyone or just some people? I get CTC (not WTC) and havent had a letter but ive heard quite a lot of folk saying that they got one. I know the government is increasing CTC by £50 a week (starting in the next tax year i persume?) so is it anything to do with that? And does anyone know what the £50 a week increase is all about? Will that affect everyone or do you have to qualify for example???

The one off payments are due to the system being updated so they dont know who will get one or not, it isnt specific to ctc or wtc, id imagine they are sending the letters out in batches and that everyone will eventually get a letter (dont quote me on that tho) but the letter does say they dont know whether you will get the payment or not but the are forwarning people that if they do get one they are entitled to the payment and no need to ring them about it.

Its connected with the spending review and any elements going up in the new tax year etc in the sense the system needs to be calculating and updating the awards correctly when the new tax year hits, as in the new taper points for income, thresholds and backdating etc, ive not heard about a £50 a week increase so cant help you there im afraid, but if you want to know what elements are going up or going etc a quick google will bring up plenty of results, I would have a look for you but not on form today and its taken me ages just to write this reply!

HTH