working tax credit age

roddyolley

Hi all i'm 23 and have been working in the care sector for the past 8 years but can't claim any benefits because i earn 9000 a year and am under 25 can anyone explain why you must be over 25 to get working tax credit?

nannytone_2

under the age of 25 it is quite normal for a young person to still be living at home with their parents, and would not have the same financial obligations as someone running their own household

roddyolley

true but i've been living by myself for over 3 years now and have to pay everything the only help i get is single person discount is there a way around it?

Hammyman

No. There has to be a line drawn somewhere and that is where the line is drawn. If you're renting see if you can get housing benefit.

i've been living by myself for over 3 years now and have to pay everything

No, really? Welcome to the real adult world where that is what you are expected to do.

roddyolley

No, really? Welcome to the real adult world where that is what you are expected to do.

Excuse me i don't mind paying my way i just want some help i do a extremly hard but satisfying job and all i wanted to know is if i can get any help. Don't patronise me hammyman.

Cherry_Bomb

There is no way round it.

I don't know about your hours but seeing as you have a good bit of experience in the care sector have you thought about joining the bank at your local hospital or something like nhsp? Even one shift extra a week (especially a Sunday long day!) can really make a difference

SingleSue

nannytone wrote: »

under the age of 25 it is quite normal for a young person to still be living at home with their parents, and would not have the same financial obligations as someone running their own household

Blimey, at 23 I had had my first child and had a mortgage for 3 years!

BigAunty

It's simply an arbitrary threshold to suppress the benefit bill to the nation and I imagine, to reduce dependency by the young, encouraging them to become self sufficient through employment rather than benefits the moment they leave school.

Are you aware that at the end of the Labour government, more was being paid out in benefits, allowances and credits than employees were paying in income tax?! That's how skewed and imbalanced the national books were getting. That kind of atrocious spending versus tax income had only happened once before briefly in the past but was becoming the norm as Labour threw tax credits, heating allowances, EMA, child trust fund, healthy eating vouchers, sure start maternity grant, plus changes to SMI which meant that property owners could get it sooner.

I can understand why you looking at it solely from your point of view but that's the economic context - the bankers definately ruined the economy but the public spending spree didn't help either.

There's a threshold for the 1 bedroom rate of Local Housing Allowance for 25 year olds which is being raised to 35 in January, meaning that housing benefit claimants are expected to share properties for much longer now, rather than live in their own self contained place. This was brought in specifically to try and trim the housing benefit bill which doubled to £20 billion per year under the labour government. So these age related thresholds can and do change.

If your 9k wage is a gross wage (it's not clear if you mean net or gross) then you are only working part time as a person on the NMW gets around 11-12k.

If you want your money to go further, your options are to get a better paid job and/or reduce your living expenses. These were the only options prior to the introduction of tax credits because when I was your age, I held a full time job and a part time job on top of it, working around 50-55 hours per week, in order to afford my lodgings - housing benefit supplements were also a lot lower then, so no help there from the state with my rent.

When you reach 25, the government is hoping to start implementing the Universal Credit system to replace a number of income based benefits and they intend to do away with separate tax credits and I think also tackle the culture of people working part time and expecting the state to top up their income to levels similar to those in employment, there will be higher conditionality in getting UC. Find the proposal paper for UC and read it to understand how it could impact you. Note it's not policy yet so see it as a draft or intention rather than fact.

DorsetGirl_2

Can you do more hours/overtime or get a second job?

mazza111

I can understand where you're coming from. My daughter was in the same position as you. Running her own home on minimum wage isn't easy, especially as you would qualify for tax credits if you were over 25. I really don't see the difference between an 20 YO and a 25YO who are both in the same position financially and running their own homes.

flutterby_lil

I left home at 18......