Tax Credit Advisor here to help

glitterygirl

Hi Jamie,

I have apparently overpaid by £700 from 2004/2005.

The reason for this is the following -

I spilt up with sons father
We had a 50/50 agreement with regards to his care as he spent half the week with me & half the week with his Dad.
When the Tax credits came up for renewal his Dad asked me if he could claim it as he was paying his nursery fee's and was struggling. I agreed so did not renew my claim. This is apparently where I went wrong as I should have sent the form back to advise of this!!!!
His Dad started to claim and we thought all was good in the world....

I have appealed and they said no on the basis I should have read the form & sent it back.

Seems a bit harsh imo and I really can not afford the £700!

What can I do??

Many Thanks in advance for your help.

kim_brock37

Here one,
Im on i/s and ctc as a single person now. My ex and I are owed joint claim ctc from may 05 - aug 06 and never recieved a penny due to "errors"! I have rang up at least once a month since 2005, made a formal complaint and wrote to the backdating team twice, why is this still not rectified??

SWEETY_PIE

jamiebraund wrote: »

Hi i've been working in tax credits now for the last year and thought i would provide general help to anyone that has any queries regarding tax credits.

I can provide general advice to anyone but i cannot comment on idividual circumstances i.e if your next door neighbour is getting more than you and you both only have one child.

I will try to reply to any questions a.s.a.p

Hi I hope you can help me .I was claiming as a single parent for the past 5 years on tax credits.Me and my partner remaind good friends and the relationship has been on and off for years but we could never live together.As he has had many affairs.I have allways paid for everything all the bills and council tax He has never provided for anything. Recently we decided to give it ago and live together as i found out that i was pregnant. we are buying a house together. I told tax credits to stop my claim as a single parent as me and my partner was moving in together. They have stopped my claim but my new claim as a couple has come back as child not matched. how can my child not match the system when i have claimed for her for the past 5 years. they said they are sending me a letter explaining all.Please help

[Deleted User]

It could just be a spelling error, a number been picked up wrong for DOB.
Did you put your child benefit number on the claim? Did you put in both applicant 1 and applicant 2 boxes?
They match the details held on the child benefit database, if it doesnt match that is why it flagged up.
You need to make sure to only put the child benefit number in the box for applicant 1 (If you are applicant 1).
If there is a problem they send you a letter requesting you send your child's birth certificate.
Send the original certificate as soon as you receive the letter (send recorded delivery if you can). It does take a few weeks to be sorted but you WILL be backdated to when they received the forms. You can also request it be backdated to the day after your single claim ended (but wait until the claim is processed to request this as it may be automatially done).

VixAsh

Hi there, and thank you for offering your advice to forum users.

I am currently getting both working and child tax credits and sadly with the rise in my mortgage and being a single Mum, things are tight! Despite cutting back on everything I can and switching everything to cheaper providers I still have a shortfall on income v expenditure!

I have been thinking about the rent a room scheme and am aware that I can get £4250 (or something like that) tax free but am I correct in thinking that I will have to declare this as income for my tax credit claim? And if so, is there a way in which I can calculate how this will impact on the credits I already get?

I hope you can help - thank you!

nigey670

I would just like to check that my understanding of the child tax credit rules are correct.
I am married & have a 2 children one of them is disabled which means that my child tax credits are fairly high given our joint income. Both my wife & I work around 30 hrs per week which gives scope for either of us to easily increase our hours. On our current income however the tax credit amounts to around £400 per month.

What I need to check is if whether I am correct in thinking that for every £1000 extra per annum that either of us earns ( from april 2008) we would pay £200 tax and £110 NI and have our tax credit reduced by £390pa which would leave us with £300 in our pocket. I know that there are rules where you dont have to inform them of increases in pay for certain amounts but I believe that eventually it gets taken back in following years as they ask each year how much you earned each previous year.

If this is not correct could some expert on here please let me know how much extra I would get for each 1000 I earn

[Deleted User]

VixAsh wrote: »

Hi there, and thank you for offering your advice to forum users.

I am currently getting both working and child tax credits and sadly with the rise in my mortgage and being a single Mum, things are tight! Despite cutting back on everything I can and switching everything to cheaper providers I still have a shortfall on income v expenditure!

I have been thinking about the rent a room scheme and am aware that I can get £4250 (or something like that) tax free but am I correct in thinking that I will have to declare this as income for my tax credit claim? And if so, is there a way in which I can calculate how this will impact on the credits I already get?

I hope you can help - thank you!

For Tax Credits, you also can deduct the first £4250 per year from the Rent a Room Scheme.
So effectively you could rent a romm in your own home out to someone for around £80 p/w without having to declare this income to TCO.

[Deleted User]

nigey670 wrote: »

I would just like to check that my understanding of the child tax credit rules are correct.
I am married & have a 2 children one of them is disabled which means that my child tax credits are fairly high given our joint income. Both my wife & I work around 30 hrs per week which gives scope for either of us to easily increase our hours. On our current income however the tax credit amounts to around £400 per month.

What I need to check is if whether I am correct in thinking that for every £1000 extra per annum that either of us earns ( from april 2008) we would pay £200 tax and £110 NI and have our tax credit reduced by £390pa which would leave us with £300 in our pocket. I know that there are rules where you dont have to inform them of increases in pay for certain amounts but I believe that eventually it gets taken back in following years as they ask each year how much you earned each previous year.

If this is not correct could some expert on here please let me know how much extra I would get for each 1000 I earn

Cant comment on Tax & NI but you are correct regarding reduction of 39p per £1 earned from Tax Credit award (£390 in the £1000).
But remember this calculation disregards the first £6420 of your earnings.

Note: These are rates for 2008/09.

aaroncaz

Hi, I was wondering( I may be wrong!!)if you have been overpaid on your tax credits, how long, can the take/reclaim the money off you for? I heard it was a year?

Lucymoo

Hi, My huaband and I have been claiming tax credits for a few years now. two years ago my eldest two children got jobs and so my claim for them ended. My daughter is 12 now. i got a local job and was still getting £45 per week TC. last December I was made redundant and can't find another job yet. I rang up and told Tax Credit office and to my horror my payments have now gone down to £42 per week. I telephoned to query this and was told my award was worked out by how much I earned last year? So now I'm £500 per month down from losing my job and there is only my husbands money coming in and no likelyhood of any more money coming in. I have been on the cccs website and that said that even without any creditors, I wouldn't have enough to pay my everyday bills.
What does the government do about people like me? Are we just allowed to starve to death? I have applied for every job going in my area and so don't know where to to turn.
Some light shedding needed.
Lucymoo.