C & W tax credit - why am I worse off?

Mammato1

Hello,

Please could someone help and explain in case my thinking is not correct.

I'm a single mum and work and study so I have to put my DD in the nursery full time. She just got a grant for over 3 years old this September so I get 15hrs free.

September I still kept her 8-6 in the nursery with the fee of £112.00 a week. I worked 24 hrs and gave the estimated income of £15,200 a year (although it will be much lower - I just fear being overpaid as this happened to me once before).

I was getting £127.28 a week of child tax credits.

But my daughter was v tired of long hrs and part of my work changed to more flexible hrs (with much less money though) so I decided to decrease the nursery hrs a bit - now she goes in 8.30 and leaves 5.30.

Anyway, as a result the nursery payment dropped to £96 a week.

My salary stayed reported at the same level of £15,200.

I also changed the hours to 30 as I now do Avon as a part of my working arrangements and spend most of my evenings ane weekends on it.

I was expecting ctc to drop but not in a way that would penalise me for trying to save money and give us a bit more time together.

Now I am getting £105.18 a week of child tax credits.

So it looks like my ctc dropped by £22.10 while the amount of money saved by dropping 1 hr a day iss £16

Now £6 a week may not sound a lot to many people but it is a lot to me.

If it is the case I would change back but want to check with someone more knowledgeable before I proceed.

Even with the WTC going up a bit I am worse off every week

I would appreciate your advice. Thanks