Tax credit payment £90 lower than expected.

bass3k

Hi,

Every 4 weeks we get £504 through in child and working tax credits. This month we have been paid £414 and have no idea why. None of our details have changed, I've not called them with a change of circumstance and they have the right income details for my wife and I.

My daughter is 27 months old - does that make a difference?

We're very unhappy today Npower also decided to take 2x as much out of our account meaning we're completely destroyed for this month!

pipscot

bass3k wrote: »

Hi,

Every 4 weeks we get £504 through in child and working tax credits. This month we have been paid £414 and have no idea why. None of our details have changed, I've not called them with a change of circumstance and they have the right income details for my wife and I.

My daughter is 27 months old - does that make a difference?

We're very unhappy today Npower also decided to take 2x as much out of our account meaning we're completely destroyed for this month!

There have been lots of posts on here in the last couple of weeks with the same sort of story. Some people have had unusual payments due to recalculations/balancing payments at the year end. There was a change in the budget to working tax credit calculations so that could have affected your payment.

Also you could look on your last award notice to check if it said your payment would drop in April.

Apart from that - you may have to ring them on Tuesday to find out why. :):)

bass3k

Thank you, I actually thought the new gov changes benefitted us, more fool me I guess haha. I'll have a check through though, and then of course ring them Tuesday.Going to be a tough time ahead if these changes are perm!

GobbledyGook

Do you have any childcare in your amounts from tax credits? That seems to be catching a lot of people out from what I've heard folks saying. Lots didn't realise the amount was going down from 80% to 70%.

pipscot

bass3k wrote: »

Thank you, I actually thought the new gov changes benefitted us, more fool me I guess haha. I'll have a check through though, and then of course ring them Tuesday.Going to be a tough time ahead if these changes are perm!

It was a bit of a double edged sword - child tax credits went up but the rate at which they withdraw the tax credits also went up (from 39% to 41%) so it was a bit difficult to work out whether you were better off or not!!!! Hope for your sake it's just a mistake on their part!:):)

bass3k

Our total income is about 12,000 a year as I am a student and my wife works as a teaching assistant. My student finance is tax free so my income is 0, hers hasnt changed as they havn't increased the wages at her school. Childcare is paid for by student finance.

The sheets they sent last year seem to confirm what was said above, they have said that from the 2nd of May our wtc would go down by 126 and our ctc would go up 32 quid (roughly) - Looks like we're screwed then! I will ring them and check though.

Hammyman

bass3k wrote: »

Npower also decided to take 2x as much out of our account meaning we're completely destroyed for this month!

Invoke the Direct Debit guarantee if you've not been given the statutory minimum notice of the change or it is in error.

zagfles

bass3k wrote: »

Our total income is about 12,000 a year as I am a student and my wife works as a teaching assistant. My student finance is tax free so my income is 0, hers hasnt changed as they havn't increased the wages at her school. Childcare is paid for by student finance.

The sheets they sent last year seem to confirm what was said above, they have said that from the 2nd of May our wtc would go down by 126 and our ctc would go up 32 quid (roughly) - Looks like we're screwed then! I will ring them and check though.

If you don't get childcare help in tax credits then the govt changes will definitely benefit you on that income.

But your WTC going down so much is probably because your income was lower in the 2009/10 tax year - and for 2010/11 you'd have been covered by the disregard. When did your wife start work?