Tax credits letter about hours

emiai

I had a letter this morning explaining that families who work 16 hours a week with children must increase their working hours to 24 to still receive working tax credit payments after April 2012.

What happens to those who cant gain any more working hours? Or is this a money shuffling exercise between depts again as the shortfall will be covered by housing benefits etc.

nannytone_2

if a coup;e cant manage to find 24 paid hours work a week betwen them, they will lose any working tax credit they receive.

why should 2 healthy able people be allowed to only work 16 hours between them, when a single person has to work 30?

mucklebones

My partner works 16 hours and finding an extra 8 isnt going to be easy. I care for my disabled daughter 24/7 and we will probably lose £70 a week.

emiai

Increasing it to 24 isnt that much more, but some will struggle.
However my question was simply who will pick up the bill for the shortall, will child tax credit payments rise or will housing benefits / council tax benefits be pushed up to cover the loss.

The poster above is set to lose £70 a week, thats a lot!

Cherry_Bomb

nannytone wrote: »

if a coup;e cant manage to find 24 paid hours work a week betwen them, they will lose any working tax credit they receive.

why should 2 healthy able people be allowed to only work 16 hours between them, when a single person has to work 30?

What a stupid reply.

OP`I understand if there's no extra hours available at your current workplace so I guess the obvious answer is look elsewhere to top up your hours. Even cleaning in the mornings/evenings? Selling on Ebay? (I don't even know if this counts but it's just a thought) A Saturday job?

mummyroysof3

mucklebones wrote: »

My partner works 16 hours and finding an extra 8 isnt going to be easy. I care for my disabled daughter 24/7 and we will probably lose £70 a week.

do you get carers allowence? does that not class as working? im guessing not but worth a try as im sure it prevents you working more hours

FredFlinstone

hello sorry to butt in the thread but this is the first i have heard of this. I currently work 20 hours p/w my husband works 37 hours p/w is it 24 hours jointly? or would i have to up my hours to 24 ??

meemo38

its 24 jointly, so your fine with those hours

zagfles

emiai wrote: »

Increasing it to 24 isnt that much more, but some will struggle.
However my question was simply who will pick up the bill for the shortall, will child tax credit payments rise or will housing benefits / council tax benefits be pushed up to cover the loss.

The poster above is set to lose £70 a week, thats a lot!

No CTC won't rise (not because of this anyway).

If you get HB/CTB they will rise because they are worked out on your net income including tax credits, and if you don't get them you could become entitled.

But they will never make up 100% of the loss in tax credits - it's 85% max as the taper for HB is 65% and CTB is 20%.

milliemonster

mucklebones wrote: »

My partner works 16 hours and finding an extra 8 isnt going to be easy. I care for my disabled daughter 24/7 and we will probably lose £70 a week.

So why are you unable to try to get a few hours a week? you could work opposite your partner so one of you would be available to care for your daughter but then fulfill the criteria for WTC?

mucklebones

milliemonster wrote: »

So why are you unable to try to get a few hours a week? you could work opposite your partner so one of you would be available to care for your daughter but then fulfill the criteria for WTC?

I would love to but there are many aspects of her care she will only let me do unfortunately.

I just found out I can claim carers allowance so not sure where that will stand with new criteria. Hopefully a job will come up in the meantime.