working tax credit stopped

john1964golf

Hi,wonder if any one can help.A friend of my wife is single with 2 children.She works 17 and a half hours a week,and has done for the last 5 years.She was told today that this was not enough hours as she only works term time in a school.She has told tc this lots of times and been told it was fine.they stopped her wtc as of today,is this right??

RAS

Does she have any evidence that she told the TC this previously and that they said it was OK.

She needs to work and average of 16 hours or more to get WTC. They will average the number of hours she works over the whole year. Exactly what her current contract works out at is hard without knowing her holiday allowance.

john1964golf

she gets 13 weeks a year holiday.Even on her form it says 20 hrs a week worked which she has told them is wrong would not be enough.The lady told her there would be no overpayment as she had told them this,but she is worried as we all know what tc is like.

AnxiousMum

If she's working 17.5 hours per week - then that's equivalent to only 12-3/4 hours per week if averaged out over the year. (that's if she's on a 38 week term contract) Same with me - I work 36 hours per week but term time minus two weeks - so my average is only 24.92 per week over the course of the year.

stu12345_2

wtc is worked diff from jsa, she can get it!! I did a google search and read up.Its a shame they work diff, wtc is the usual hours per week, eg 20 its enough, they disregard the 13 weeks unpaid,so its 20 hrs is the norm.
but jsa, doesnt, they average it out, so if she ges 20 hrs, it works out at 15.6 hrs per week and she can claim 0.4 hrs jsa if her average wage is very low.
the theory is if you work say in a school and have kids you live on your tax crdits over the hols, easter, xmas etc, but cos she can make a tiny jsa claim, they tax credits value cancel it out.

i have worked as school bus driver and that what happens to me, execept, i have no kids and really struggle as i cant get tax credits as i need 30 hrs.council tax and housing benefit state on your form, there is special rules for calculating those if you apply.
key in term time work and tax credits into google and it gives you a gov site that shows 3 examples of school workers.

Sixer

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/start/claiming/income-hours/work-out-hours.htm

Blobby8_2

Sixer wrote: »

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/start/claiming/income-hours/work-out-hours.htm

If you do regular term-time work

If you work a regular number of hours a week, but only during the school term, put down the hours you work during term-time.

john1964golf

Blobby8 wrote: »

If you do regular term-time work

If you work a regular number of hours a week, but only during the school term, put down the hours you work during term-time.

So does this mean she has done the right thing and it is there fault?
She spoke to someone from specialist complience team ,said they seemed to know what they were talking about.The lady insisted she would Not have an overpayment,as it says 20 hrs on her form and they should have known even that was'nt enough.

Icequeen99

She should get some specialist help.

Try TaxAid or LITRG or CAB.

IQ

stu12345_2

the only 3 ways i csee her having an overpayment is her hours drop at school below 16, tax credits need to know ur hours if they go up or down in order not to leave u underestimating ur income when u get ur p60 in april
or u go below 16 hrs and they stop it, cos if u dont tell them ,then its dishonest and u have to pay back lots since the dat u went below 16, but as term time worker shes 17hrs so shes still fine, but it seem to dowith her p60 that would result in her underestimating her salary.
or maybe 5 yrs ago the rules were diff for termtime workers, i dont know and she didnt state she was a termtime worker back then, but maybe said she was a normal pt time worker, but as we've discovered termtime workers arent averaged, is what they do in anormal week and hence 17.5 and thus fine.

linz83

Term time workers do not have their hours averaged the same as full time workers. Your friend needs to appeal against the decision as soon as possible. If she reads through the claim form notes (TC600 notes) on HMRC website I am sure this will mention term time work and she should send this in with her appeal.