Tax credits - help!

GingerKaz

Hi, I am new to this site but would appreciate it if anyone could help. I recently added my new baby onto my tax credits but when I received my award notice my payments remained the same. So when I phoned up to query this I gave them mine and my husbands actual earnings for 2010-11. But because I did not give them our actual earnings before 31/07/2011 my claim has to wait 15 weeks to be processed and they cannot tell me whether I will be paid what I am entitled to. The reason I did not give them my actual earnings in July was because on my renewal notice I was asked of my earning fell between 2 figures, 24k and 40k, which they did therefore my letter said I did not need to do anything and my clam would automatically renew. So now when I am giving them my actual figures I have to wait 15 weeks to find out the outcome of my claim instead of receiving the extra £120 per month I am entitled to. Surely this cannot be right that I am made to wait 15 weeks when I have followed the instructions given to me on my renewal notice. My husband is also self employed and his tax return was not completed until September so there was no way I could have given them actual earnings in July anyway.

Any advice anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated.!

Sorry for the long post, but as I'm sure you can understand I'm rather annoyed that I am being penalised for following their instructions!