Tax Credits Query - Very confused!

abbieno7_2

hi

please could somebody shed some light on what has happened with my renewal.

It has been finalised on 15/8/11 and they have said that our payments are to go down by £360 every four weeks (£141 was due to an overpayment apparently and the other £200 due to us earning £10k more)

The problem is we don't earn £10k more than last year. Our earnings last year were approx £27k and this year will be around £30k.
I provided an estimate for last year which was £29k which is what they based our payments on so I don't understand how they have concluded that we now earn £10k more a year.

Please can somebody help?

thanks so much

abbieno7_2

further to my earlier post, i have called TC again and spoken with somebody different who said they haven't received any estimated figures for last year, hence us apparently earning 10k more. i know i provided them with this info last year, he said i cannot appeal this though.

Does anybody know where i stand please? If i find my award notice which states the estimated income i have given them will this suffice and aid me in submitting an appeal do you think?

At this rate it isn't going to be worth me working and paying out for childcare

thanks a lot

skintandscared_2

abbieno7 wrote: »

further to my earlier post, i have called TC again and spoken with somebody different who said they haven't received any estimated figures for last year, hence us apparently earning 10k more. i know i provided them with this info last year, he said i cannot appeal this though.

Does anybody know where i stand please? If i find my award notice which states the estimated income i have given them will this suffice and aid me in submitting an appeal do you think?

At this rate it isn't going to be worth me working and paying out for childcare

thanks a lot

Can they not tell you WHAT figure they had for last year? They must have been working from something, to give you any payment at all! Looks to me like they were working from £29k and the difference is actually only £1k, and someone put their decimal point in the wrong place!

needingaccountability

If you have last years award and it clearly shows they were working off the estimated figures for this year then yes I would say you have a case.

In fact if you only earned £27000 and estimated £29000 shouldn't they be paying you something extra?

As for this years £30000 have you told them that's what you have estimated your earning?

what were you earning in 2009-2010? is it possible it was nearer the £17000 mark, they have disregared your estimate and worked off that then the actual £27000 has made the £10000 difference? that is the only way I can see £10000 entering in there other than as someone else says someone slipped up with a decimal point.

The people behind the phone do not always have any 'common sense' so if I were you I would carry on phoning till you find someone who will listen and understand what your saying to them.

abbieno7_2

Thanks guys for your replies.

i have spoken with 5 people on separate occasions now including someone from the overpayments team - 4 of them have said that they have been working on our earned income of £21072 from 09/10 which they used to calculate our award of last year, however I do have two different award letters, of different dates which clearly state the income they have used to calculate the 10/11 award is based on an estimate provided by me of £29k!!

Although all 4 of the advisors insisted they dont have that figure on their system - they only have £21072 - hence where the £10k increase in our income has come from as our earnings for 10/11 were £31k.

I feel like I am banging my head against a brick wall. Do you think i have a fair case if i send in a dispute form and enclose the award notices with it?

Thank you so much for your help thus far guys

leaannep85

i do not know anythinng about tax credits really, i was just looking around different forums but i do know from speaking to many different people that you should only send copies of the award notices in when making a dispute, if for any reason they lost the originals you would have nothing to prove what you are saying, where as at the moment you have

Hope you get things sorted soon xx

krisskross

How many children are you claiming for? It is difficult to work out what you should be receiving without knowing this fairly crucial bit of information. Any childcare in there?

krisskross

Sorry, double posted

abbieno7_2

Hi Krisskross

We have three children and childcare costs of approx £222 a week over the year.

Thanks in advance

Icequeen99

So your earnings were approx £21,000 in 09/10, £31,000 in 10/11 and you think they will be around £30,000 this year. Is that correct?

If that is correct, that is why you are seeing a fall.

Your award for last year 2010/11 would have been finalised on 21,000 even though you gave an estimate of 29,000, because they use previous year income unless your income has increased by more than a certain amount (used to be 25,000 now 10,000).

Your 2011/12 award, which is your current award, will initially be paid based on previous year income which is the full 31,000.

So the increase in income between 09/10 and 10/11 is only now showing on your claim.

Also, you have quite high childcare costs and help with childcare has been lowered from 80% to 70% which will probably make quite an impact on your award.

IQ

needingaccountability

Have you got your Final tax credits decision for 06/04/10 to 05/04/2011 that will tell you what they worked on. I must say though that it's a really annoying system if they totally disregard your estimated earnings :mad: