Child tax credit limit reduced to £26,000

wendyloub

The_Write_Girl wrote: »

I do have sympathy for her I'm afraid. She has probably worked hard, gained a good education, paid into the benefits' pot for years only to have the £20/£30 a week taken away.

I have little or no sympathy for people who rely on tax credits to pad out their income. They should have worked harder - in a nutshell.

When the CB strip away arrives, the Mr and I will be 'adjusting our salaries' to escape it. We've worked to fund other people over the years - time to keep what little we get.

Some people do work hard for crap salaries, I worked 15hr shifts as a pub manager when I was married and had three children just to get by, the pub I worked for went bust, and of course when my husband left I couldn't work in pubs because there is no childcare at night, when I had my first child I had to give up my job as there was no help with childcare, I regret that now as I had a good job. I left school at 16 because my parents couldn't afford to keep me, I had to work and I have worked ever since, I have always worked hard but minimum wage isn't enough to live on without help.

Langtonbrow

Exactly, tax credits are gods way of telling us that our society is screwed up and that politicians are self serving reptiles

Heartbreaker

Definitely screwed up! And why are we struggling and at the same time our politicians decide to help out other countries, bankers getting millions of pounds in bonuses and prisons having huge amounts invested so that they can have high tech equipment - things that a lot of honest citizens don't have? Don't get me wrong, I think that we should always help others but not when we have to make so many cut backs. I don't know how we will cope if this benefit is taken away.

kitkatt1982

Sorry if already asked earlier but don't have chance to go through all twelve pages lol.... Does anyone know if this cap will stop help towards childcare as well? We have just over this household income and 2 children so aren't affected YET (I'm sure we will be soon) and whilst we are only eligible to basic rate normally, we do recieved some help towards childcare costs. Will this stop for people with income over £26,000 and one child also or is it just the basic £10.50 pw? Thanks

hm71_2

hi everyone- i've tried to work out if i will be affected by the changes- ok i am going to be settling in with a new partner in April- i have one child & am myself now no longer able to work due to severe illness, i am in reciept of DLA - my partner however will be working 48 hrs a week & will have an income of around 30000. i would be really grateful if someone with a better understanding of the changes could advise how we will be affected.
many thanks in advance.

twinmom04

Heartbreaker wrote: »

Definitely screwed up! And why are we struggling and at the same time our politicians decide to help out other countries, bankers getting millions of pounds in bonuses and prisons having huge amounts invested so that they can have high tech equipment - things that a lot of honest citizens don't have? Don't get me wrong, I think that we should always help others but not when we have to make so many cut backs. I don't know how we will cope if this benefit is taken away.

dont forget MP's expenses, they haven't agreed to stop them and they govern their own pay.

Murgatroyd21

I would like to think if MSE are going to raise a thread to an OFFICIAL MSE NEWS STORY, they would at least use examples that confirm the aim of the issue, not make it more confusing!

Quote from Guy Anker's article "For example, if a family has two children, and HMRC thinks they earn £35,000 a year, that would make them genuinely ineligible and would rightly get this letter. But if that income fell to £30,000, they would be entitled to a payout, even though they earn over the £26,000 sum quoted in HMRC's letters"

No, they wouldn't be entitled in this scenario!!!

There is a £2500 disregard applied when they reduce the income from April which means £32500 would be the figure used to calculate entitlement based on the details given in the article, which in turn means no entitlement.

Not helping things by not understanding the impact of all the changes I'm afraid.

zagfles

Murgatroyd21 wrote: »

I would like to think if MSE are going to raise a thread to an OFFICIAL MSE NEWS STORY, they would at least use examples that confirm the aim of the issue, not make it more confusing!

Quote from Guy Anker's article "For example, if a family has two children, and HMRC thinks they earn £35,000 a year, that would make them genuinely ineligible and would rightly get this letter. But if that income fell to £30,000, they would be entitled to a payout, even though they earn over the £26,000 sum quoted in HMRC's letters"

No, they wouldn't be entitled in this scenario!!!

There is a £2500 disregard applied when they reduce the income from April which means £32500 would be the figure used to calculate entitlement based on the details given in the article, which in turn means no entitlement.

Not helping things by not understanding the impact of all the changes I'm afraid.

It depends when the income fell. If it fell this tax year (ie they put £35,000 as 2010/11 income on the last renewal, so that's what HMRC think they earn, but it fell to £30,000 in 2011/12), then they would be entitled from April.

Murgatroyd21

zagfles wrote: »

It depends when the income fell. If it fell this tax year (ie they put £35,000 as 2010/11 income on the last renewal, so that's what HMRC think they earn, but it fell to £30,000 in 2011/12), then they would be entitled from April.

The letter is going out based on what they think the carry forward income is from 2011/12 to 2012/13. The information in the article is implying that if the income this year is indeed £35k but drops to £30k next year there will be an entitlement. There won't be.

zagfles

Murgatroyd21 wrote: »

The letter is going out based on what they think the carry forward income is from 2011/12 to 2012/13. The information in the article is implying that if the income this year is indeed £35k

No, it says "and HMRC thinks they earn £35,000 a year". Not that they actually will earn £35,000 this year. The tax year isn't over yet so a lot of people won't know what their income will be, particularly the self-employed. Other people will not report income drops in-year because if you do, and your income increases again, you can end up with an overpayment even if you tell them on time.

In both these cases, HMRC will assume they earn what they did in 2010/11 plus inflation. If that's not right, and it has dropped to £30k in 2011/12, there will be entitlement from April.

In any case, even if it does drop to £30k next year from £35k this year, it's still well worth keeping the claim open, for two reasons - in case it drops further (won't take much of a drop - about £300) and also because if everything stays the same, there will be entitlement in April 2013.