Tax credits dropped from £500+ to £42 - help!

Miranda7

No, what I'm saying is that I gave them a figure that included his tax-free earnings too, to ensure we weren't overpaid. This year will be different - he's just got a new job with no tax-free part of his earnings. So the award, based on last year, should be higher I think?

bestpud

Miranda7 wrote: »

No, what I'm saying is that I gave them a figure that included his tax-free earnings too, to ensure we weren't overpaid. This year will be different - he's just got a new job with no tax-free part of his earnings. So the award, based on last year, should be higher I think?

Yes you may be right as your current payments (the provisional award they use between April 6th and renewal) will be based on the figure you gave them (that includes the tax free earnings).

When you renew, it will indeed be based on your actual earnings for last year and you will be cushioned from his higher income until April next year.

Hopefully you are right and it will mean your current payments are adjusted in your favour.

Miranda7

God, I hope so. I like my job - the cheaper alternative is to find something closer to home, but that won't be in my profession. More like a supermarket/cleaner's job. And that would make it hard to get back into my career when he goes to school.

I'm crossing everything I have two of it won't be quite as bad as £42!

FOURCANDLES_2

This is all well and good and a few funny people sitting on the old high horse but the main issue is TC were introduced and were around in many guises for decades. those on salary's below £40 odd k will be fine those over will loose most if not all of it . However at the end of th day nobody turns down free money and being self employed my accountant does me well. I live a a very nice housing association on its own the last one in a village my rent is half that of a private tenant I am saving well for a property and another 4 years will see me fine . Many say I should move out but i am permitted to have this house by the rules even changed I can stay here and after seeing bob crow on £85k plus living in an association home do I feel guilty NO because I am permitted to live in it the odd villager moans about it but would they turn the chance down? nope they would not and as with tax credits you filled your boots when you could now it stops i am afraid that is the way it goes . Now is the time to re access your working life childcare arrangements where you work and where possibly you live.

Shelldean

bestpud wrote: »

Melly has some grand ideas when it comes to the amount families receive.

Despite knowing the facts about a family near her, she was saying working families receive free school meals the other day.

Methinks she's not as wise to the situation as she thinks.

I blame all the wonderful cars and TVs etc she has her eye on, without any thought for how the family may be up to their eyeballs in debt!

working families CAN and DO receive free school dinners!!! We do!! Depends on the make up of the family and the wage earnt..
ANd yes some people who were on TC were entitled to the free laptop when the scheme was first run.

blades_man_2

tobysmummy wrote: »

We have had a letter through this morning telling us that our tax credits are dropping from £500 per month to ZERO!

Ours was based on earning a joint income of around £25,000 in 2009-2010 and having a toddler in full time childcare (£850 per month). (Hubby had been made redundant for some time during this tax year, so our earnings were lower) Last year, our earnings went up to around £43K as my husband was back in work after redundancy, yet we were still entitled to the £500, which I phoned and questioned but were assured we were entitled to.

I had no notification that this might happen, just a letter saying "we're not paying you anymore!" Income-wise it might look as though we earn a decent wage, which is true, but couple this with what we have to pay out each month in childcare, mortgage, bills, petrol, food etc, we are actually left with very little money to "play" with, and are not in a position to save for the future which really upsets me. Earning what we do, and working as hard as we work, we should be able to afford to go on a nice holiday this year, or treat ourselves to some luxuries, but we simply can't - our tax credits are needed to afford a decent quality of life - now we will be on the breadline because of our drop in income and increase in everything else. I'm struggling to understand how the average working family are allowed to be the hardest hit in the midst of these cuts and overhauls buy the coalition.

Sorry for the rant, and sorry I can't offer any help or answers to the OP, just wanted to say that I can identify with your situation and all we're doing is taking a long look at where we can cut back to try and manage, and hold out until school starts in september and childcare fee's stop.

Good luck to us all!

Your "rant" is uncalled for and has probably already offended several forum members.

The fact is; if your earnings went up to £43000 a year there is no way you should be getting £500 per month tax credit!!! You are almost saying that you should be given the £500 child tax credit to fund your lifestyle choice!

I earn £40000 per year and we have had only £41 per month child tax credit for years (which has now stopped)!

This forum has made me realise that there are some big earners out there (£30000+) who are still receiving large child tax credits! It makes me want to pack up work and claim every benefit I can!

teabag29

I agree with alot of posts about too much tax credits and benefits being paid out etc but what do you think the solution is? Like people have said previously I think it would be harsh to end the welfare state all together and there would most probablly be a huge rise in crime if that were to happen.

duchy

StormyWeather wrote: »

It's also worth bearing in mind that two working parents in a family means two sets of work related expenses. Travel, possibly dry cleaning for work clothes, possibly having to buy clothes/shoes specifically for work that aren't tax deductable.


:undecided

It can also mean 2 parents working opposing shifts so able to share a car -one minding the children whilst the other works and vv so no childcare costs,

I don't think you need to be a parent to need clothes for work though-I think you'll find that applies to non parents too ! Nothing to do with having children at all.

Fridge2

teabag29 wrote: »

I agree with alot of posts about too much tax credits and benefits being paid out etc but what do you think the solution is? Like people have said previously I think it would be harsh to end the welfare state all together and there would most probablly be a huge rise in crime if that were to happen.

You don't need to end the welfare state.

Just stop with the handout mentality..instead why not give people tax breaks instead of employing someone to take the money away and then redistribute it?...that way there is still an incentive to work full time.

Abolish income tax and replace with a consumption tax as well...the more money you get to keep in your pocket the less you need to earn to make up for the rapacious taxation.

SingleSue

Just a little anecdote for you all....

When I was at work, I worked with people who had husbands/partners earning 3 times what my husband earned...my salary was of course the same as my colleagues.

We did receive tax credits (for a while until his and my salary picked up) but once added up, our income was still approx 30k short of my colleagues joint income, yet we had more disposable cash...why? Well, we didn't have finance for anything, we didn't have credit cards, we didn't take holidays costing 6k and put it all on the credit card, we didn't replace our kitchen with a 10k one every 3 years (our kitchen cost £50 13 years ago now) and our sofa was second hand rather than 5k every two years, we didn't have new (expensive) clothes every month (ours were made to last and inexpensive to start with), we didn't replace our car with a high finance new one every 3 years and we didn't splash the cash on nights out with our friends, we would have inexpensive nights in with them instead.

The amount they had to pay back every month was massive, just because they had to have the life...the amount we paid back was zero because we only replaced when it was really needed, we only purchased what we could afford to pay cash for.

My colleagues also didn't have to pay childcare, just like me...their other halves did the honours, just like my now ex husband did.

So, it meant that we could afford to go to Disneyland Paris without struggling, it meant we could have the latest games system (after waiting a wee while for the price to reduce) but we also went without the expensive, usually not really needed, new large items as we only replaced when it was absolutely strictly necessary.

And we had more disposable cash and less stress each month...even if we did have a non matching furniture front room and a dated but very functional kitchen.