Husband giving up work to mind children...

LL30

My HB changes every time my TCs change, I have 13 lots of paperwork for change of award and counting (since Aug 10!). I was on mat leave and got full HB for a while, then it went to part, and then it changed and changed and changed and changed....I can never keep track, but I'm grateful for the help, I'd never claimed anything before I got pregnant. Interestingly, they never take into account any lump sum payments I get from TCs (underpayments). Their system connects to TCs so every time there's a change, it automatically updates my details for HB and I get a new award - although I have no idea why my TCs have changed so many times!!

merlin68

We get £250 a week and get no HB. I would have though 19k would be plenty to live of.

poves

Well if you manage to get wtc and hb on £19,000 , let me know how you managed it , I earned £19,000 last year - we only get ctc £150 pw for 3 kids.
No wtc and definately no hb :huh:

Lady_strange

My partner and I were only entitled to £25 a week in hb when I worked, and I was on less than £11k a year. And that included the fact his son lives with us.

Macro_3

You need to be careful if you are planning to claim HB on the basis of a lower tax credit award. Any lump sum you receive from tax credits at the end of the year will be counted as income for HB purposes.

Arrears of tax credits paid as a lump sum are treated as capital, rather than income, for the purposes of HB/CTB. This means that, unless HMRC adjust the tax credit award in-year for the OP, the housing benefit award will be based on the £10/week they have stated that they are currently receiving.

The lump sum arrears that they then might receive when they renew next year would then only affect their HB if they already have capital and the arrears takes them above the capital threshold - and even then, only from the date it is received.

It doesn't work like that. The housing benefit department will figure out how much tax credits you are entitled to and adjust the claim from day one. You won't get maximum HB then get it reduced later.

Tax credit entitlement is nothing to do with the HB department - they will not figure out how much the claimant should be getting - they can only use the amount that is currently in payment.

Oldernotwiser

Another thing to consider, apart from the purely financial, is that when your children are both at school your husband will be 55 (older if he wants to remain home for another couple of years) and he could well be facing a situation where he'd never work again but still have several years to go before his pension kicks in.

HappyMJ

Macro wrote: »

Tax credit entitlement is nothing to do with the HB department - they will not figure out how much the claimant should be getting - they can only use the amount that is currently in payment.

You need to speak with my council they refused to pay any HB until I applied for TC's. After complaining they estimated it (at the maximum rate) and paid an interim HB payment. You have just given me an idea though if what you say is true I can estimate my income to tax credits so that I only get a couple of pounds in tax credits every 4 weeks then tell council that's all I get then when I update tax credits with the actual income then I'll get a payment and only ever get an annual payment of many thousands in tax credits as you say it'll be ignored as it's capital. What a great idea thanks... I'll get onto tax credits and increase my provisional estimate.

Macro_3

HappyMJ wrote: »

You need to speak with my council they refused to pay any HB until I applied for TC's. After complaining they estimated it (at the maximum rate) and paid an interim HB payment. You have just given me an idea though if what you say is true I can estimate my income to tax credits so that I only get a couple of pounds in tax credits every 4 weeks then tell council that's all I get then when I update tax credits with the actual income then I'll get a payment and only ever get an annual payment of many thousands in tax credits as you say it'll be ignored as it's capital. What a great idea thanks... I'll get onto tax credits and increase my provisional estimate.

Then they were incorrect. More here http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/hbgm-bw2-assessment-of-income.pdf if you are interested, pages 69-71 specifically.

The LA cannot force you to claim tax credits. I suppose that they might perhaps have used a notional amount of tax credit whilst waiting for HMRC to make a decision in order to get your claim into payment and minimise the chances of an overpayment.

As for overestimating your income - I don't know how that would work with HMRC backdating your changes etc, but there are some silly little loopholes with tax credits and HB. For example, someone has a new baby, delays telling tax credits for 3 months but tells HB immediately. HB would increase from the date the baby is born due to the increased applicable amount for the household (and perhaps increased bedroom rate also), but tax credits would only increase after the change was processed by HMRC, so perhaps three or four months or so down the line. The arrears payment of three or four months worth of CTC (payable because HMRC will backdate changes by 93 days currently) would then be capital, not income.

It happens quite a bit when single people end their tax credits claims to form partnerships. Their tax credits stop entirely and can take months to be reinstated as a joint claim - meanwhile, HB is based on the current household income. The arrears of tax credit, when it is paid, it just capital.

Tax credits overpayment recovery is also treated oddly in HB. If someone has an overpayment of a DWP benefit, such as incapacity benefit, which is being recovered from their ongoing entitlement, HB will not take into account the reduction in incap when calculating entitlement to HB - they will use the full amount of incap due in the assessment. With tax credits, they will take into account the reduced amount after overpayment recovery. So you're better off HB-wise having an overpayment of tax credits than an overpayment of incapacity benefit.

Macro_3

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Another thing to consider, apart from the purely financial, is that when your children are both at school your husband will be 55 (older if he wants to remain home for another couple of years) and he could well be facing a situation where he'd never work again but still have several years to go before his pension kicks in.

This would worry me most, I think. The OP could become permanently reliant on benefits if her partner renders himself unemployable, and with the changes coming to benefits over the next few years they could be in a very difficult position.

I don't know if I've missed this, OP, but do you know if your partner has enough NI contributions yet to claim a full state pension?

merlin68

If hte child benefit went in his name then he would be covered for NI.