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

Aarons_mummy

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

Then phone or email the OU now and tell them about that and ask for a different tutor today. The OU don't know how bad their tutors are if nobody tells them. You are paying for that course and deserve a decent tutor (even if you aren't paying, but you know what I mean). I swapped tutors one year as I didn't like the opening letter the tutor sent his tutorial group. It would have ended up in tears and I hate to see a grown man cry.



The national forums are usually more active. I loved the OU forums.

Complaints have been put in by other members of the group but it hasn't seemed to make a difference. However this course is due to end after the next assignment (:j) and it'll be onto the next one.

I've found the facebook group invaluable, a lot more information than the groups although of course there are problems with that too as each tutor has their own idea of what is expected. I still applaud the OU though

zagfles

moneypanicker wrote: »

I only ever received basic tax credits £42 a month? When i had baby no 3 i had the whole year off as a result last year we qualified for some some extra tax credits and some help with childcare. We only had baby no 3 as we could afford it! When we found out that we were entitled to this money we rang them several times to confirm - just to check.

We knew that we only qualified because our 09/10 income was much lower than other years and that this year we wouldn't get much or anything. I've reapplied for childcare vouchers 10 days ago and i'm glad as we received the letter yesterday saying that we were going from £420 a month to £0.

We did have doubts about taking this money and i know i'll get shot down for saying this but we decided that if they are offering we'll take. We looked at it as an extra help for a year but i certainly didn't expect it to continue. We earn 45k. 09/10 32k.

You shouldn't have had any doubts about taking it. The basic £42 a month "family element" of tax credits is a direct replacement for the family tax allowances of past years, which were available however high your income was.

You can bet all the "no tax credits in my day" whingers made sure they claimed their tax allowances (married couples' allowance, additional personal allowance, child tax allowances) no matter what their income was.

bigmaz

JC9297 wrote: »

I think the problem is when families have what most people would consider a good family income, but they also have children that require caring for. I personally think that if both parents working means you're not much better off after childcare costs are paid, then one parent should stay at home until the kids are at school. If you want to work for career reasons then you accept the financial hit for a few years. This is what used to happen but now people seem to think someone else should pay for their children to be looked after. I do not agree with the state paying for childcare so that parents can enjoy a higher standard of living.

I have only read the first few pages of this post, as I found it when doing a search, so apologies if I am repeating anything. It kind of annoyed me, as posts like the one I quoted above seem to be the whole attitude of this country. Although I do not personally agree with both parents working full time jobs when having a baby (my wife quit work when we had kids, and is now looking for work again), it is their right to work and they are putting money into the system, more than people that sit home looking after kids receiving benifits, so why shouldnt they be entitled to extra help if they are below the threshold. And so be it that they can afford extra luxuries with the help. Its got to the stage where honest hard working people are worse off (even penalised) than people getting top ups on benifits, and because its there, they think they are entitled to it, and hence work the minimum hours to get such benefits. And these are the ones complaining about honest hard working people are getting help from the government. Makes my blood boil..... I wouldnt mind if these folk just kept their head down and admited they are lucky for getting such top ups, and stop moaning about people that are actually contributing to the system about getting help too.