I work for Tax Credits

Ted_Hutchinson

Have you tried using the online Inland Revenue tax credit calculator?

Fran

Charlie,

You could also take your income and last tax year details to a Citizens Advice Bureau or other welfare benefits adviser who will do a calculation for you.

irs101

Charlie

The entitledto and IR online calculators work in a fundamentally different way. I can say with some confidence that both these calculators are correct as long as you understand what they are saying.

The entitledto calculator works out the full year award based on the income level you put in. So if you put in £12,000 it will assume that you worked for the full year to get this and receive tax credits for the full year.

However the IR calculator is the more relevant one for your situtation. It works out what you will get between now (the application date) and April. So if you put £12,000 into that now it should give a much lower figure than entitledto.

So the IR calculator is the one a new claimant should use for their 04/05 award, but should use the entitled calculator to give them an idea of what their 05/06 award will be.

The IR person is wrong to say that you don't get WTC at over £15K, as you will be getting the childcare element and that is part of WTC.

I'm pretty sure you won't be entitled to £8,400 for this year, because you only qualify for WTC from September. There are certainly funny effects when you first start a job and qualify for WTC (even more difficult when you are already receiving CTC, which presumably you are), but the effect won't be as big as you say. The rule still holds that, on your level of income, for every £1 reduction/increase in wage you take you lose/gain 37p in tax credits.

Hope that helps a bit.

irs

sabbykins

Hi,

My husband works and we have 2 children one of which is disabled, we currently receive WFTC.
My question is: I started college full time and was awarded a small bursary, will this affect our WFTC payments?

Thanks.

(GREAT thread BTW, i get it now!!)

Ted_Hutchinson

Entitlement: WTC entitlement - Qualifying remunerative work

Students
R(FIS)1/83 and R(FIS)1/86

The work that students (including postgraduate students) do in studying for a degree or other qualification is not qualifying remunerative work. Any grant or loan that they receive is a contribution to their maintenance and is not paid in return for work done on the course.

The above may not be relevent to WFTC as it applies to WTC.
From WTC2 Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit
I am a student. Will my loan or grant be taken into account if I claim Child Tax Credit?
We don’t take student loans or grants to meet the cost of tuition fees, child care, books, travel and equipment into account. But you should tell us if you receive a grant for a dependent child or adult.
The Helpline (see page 30 for details) will be able to tell you which elements of the dependant’s grant count as income for tax purposes.
If you are a student nurse or a health profession trainee and you receive a bursary under the NHS Bursary Scheme, you do not need to tell us about these payments in your claim.
After you have finished your studies and start work, repayments of student loans are not deductible from income in tax credit claims.

But again this information may not apply to WFTC.

sabbykins

Thanks for that Ted

Thats great news!!

Fran

Don't leave it, give them a ring and ask what's happening with your application.

irs101

The vast majority of claims these days clear within two weeks and if it doesn't it is because IR need more information from you, in which case they would have written.

Something must have gone wrong with your claim, so get in touch with them ASAP.

irs

misspriscilla

Curiosity led me to this forum. After reading, what to me is totaly incomprehensible discussion, I fell I must ask a question; I have a daughter who is married to a man whom she thinks collects Tax Credit, but doesn't know how much.
She recently started to work 10 hrs a week for about £35. Is she entitled to any benefit? I might add they have five children the first two aged 18 and 16 He collects some kind of benefit for them, and she has child benefit for the three younger ones.If anyone has any kind of guidance I can pass on to her I would be most grateful.

Fran

Curiosity led me to this forum. After reading, what to me is totaly incomprehensible discussion, I fell I must ask a question; I have a daughter who is married to a man whom she thinks collects Tax Credit, but doesn't know how much.
She recently started to work 10 hrs a week for about £35. Is she entitled to any benefit? I might add they have five children the first two aged 18 and 16 He collects some kind of benefit for them, and she has child benefit for the three younger ones.If anyone has any kind of guidance I can pass on to her I would be most grateful.

Hi misspriscilla,
Without wanting to cause unnecessary worry, it does seem odd that your daughter doesn't know exactly what her husband has as income as regards benefits. I used to work for Citizens Advice and there would very often be people whose relationships had broken down who hadn't a clue about finance and suddenly found themselves without any income or with debts that they couldn't pay. I'm not suggesting that that is going to happen in your daughter's case, but it is always a possiblity in any relationship. It has also been mentioned a lot on this forum by different people about what would happen if one of them became ill or died and the other had to sort out the finances. It's not something that any of us want to think about, but of course it does happen.

As she doesn't know about her husband's income, I would guess that at the moment they have a reasonable income, but what would happen if he lost his job or became ill and unable to work? If he is mysterious about his income, could he be spending money or getting debts that she doesn't know about? Or is she accumulating debts because she thinks that the income is more than it actually is?

Regarding the tax credits, the claim is a joint one with both partners' incomes taken into account. The amount that she is earning won't affect the claim for this tax year unless he also has an increase in income and the increases add up to £2,500 or more. As Spendless has already said, this will affect their income in the next tax year when the fact that they have earned more than the assessment means that they will have a decrease in benefits. You can find some information about tax credits on The Citizens Advice website - Adviceguide.

If their income is low, they may be entitled to Housing Benefit (if in rented accommodation) and/or Council Tax Benefit. If she thinks this might be the case her local CAB would be able to calculate whether they are entitled or not (but of course she would need their joint income details and details of savings as these are income related benefits).

If he is receiving Child Benefit for the older two children, they are presumably still in full time non-advanced education.

If she has any questions about any of this, she could post on here herself (under any name) and someone will always answer her questions.

Fran