Tax credits stopping in April 2012

zagfles

stjman wrote: »

I called HMRc again last night after asking them to leave our claim open for 2012-2013 last week. I gave them our income for the current year along with child care costs and it looks like there will be an entitlement after April. although not at the levels of previous years because of our income increasing, this still shows people must not ignore the letter saying payments will stop after April. Call them, say you want your claim to continue and when you know you full income/childcare etc for year ending April 2012 tell them....they should then calculate any entitlement for the coming tax year.

It looks like HMRC are hoping people will look at the letter and not bother contacting them.....disgrace !!!!

Can I suggest you email your MP about this if you haven't already. I can't believe no journalist has picked up on this yet - Martin said he'd look into it so hopefully we'll see something on MSE soon, then hopefully the papers.

natlie

Hi I havent read all the thread as I skipped all the CARP but HMRC wont pay my childcare (part time) as my OH is home due to illness - he cant look after DS all the time so he has to go to nursery. I have 3 kids. I dont earn anywhere near what you earn and we are appealing against JC for ESA as they stopped OH benefits. I think this is just the way it is now they stop everything hoping you wont claim - I spent 40 minutes on the phone with a lady at tax credits last week over a £30 a week drop in income. Hope you get it sorted but dont let your wife finish work or you'll get nowt for childcare like us

Pizzaface

hi all,

i had a letter too last week saying my tc's will stop in april and have just been in panic mode since.

some brilliant info here but i'm still struggling to sort my own situation out, can anybody help?

i'm a lone parent to a 7 year old son and work 37hrs a week for £29232. My childcare costs work out at £62 per week. i currently receive £205/month tax credits.

as previous posts, i'm really confused with what the aim of these latest cuts are? i've always had to work full time but bringing a child up alone at the same time isn't a breeze. my household budget has been squeezed and squeezed to the point where i have very little expendable left to contribute towards the country's economic growth with the incentive to work the hours i do wavering fast. is this not the opposite of what the government was supposed to be trying to achieve?? or am i just a complete mug for flogging myself stupid for very little gain!!!

any advice would be welcome, thanks.

zagfles

Pizzaface wrote: »

hi all,

i had a letter too last week saying my tc's will stop in april and have just been in panic mode since.

some brilliant info here but i'm still struggling to sort my own situation out, can anybody help?

i'm a lone parent to a 7 year old son and work 37hrs a week for £29232. My childcare costs work out at £62 per week. i currently receive £205/month tax credits.

as previous posts, i'm really confused with what the aim of these latest cuts are? i've always had to work full time but bringing a child up alone at the same time isn't a breeze. my household budget has been squeezed and squeezed to the point where i have very little expendable left to contribute towards the country's economic growth with the incentive to work the hours i do wavering fast. is this not the opposite of what the government was supposed to be trying to achieve?? or am i just a complete mug for flogging myself stupid for very little gain!!!

any advice would be welcome, thanks.

You should still get some, although you'll have a big drop, to about £800 a year ie £61 per 4-weeks.

The drop isn't down to the changes coming up in April, your income must have gone up quite a lot since 2010/11, that'll be the reason for the drop.

Phone them to keep your claim open. Yet another example of someone being incorrectly told their income is too high - wonder if they're failing to take into account childcare when they're telling people they won't be entitled?

Icequeen99

zagfles wrote: »

You should still get some, although you'll have a big drop, to about £800 a year ie £61 per 4-weeks.

The drop isn't down to the changes coming up in April, your income must have gone up quite a lot since 2010/11, that'll be the reason for the drop.

Phone them to keep your claim open. Yet another example of someone being incorrectly told their income is too high - wonder if they're failing to take into account childcare when they're telling people they won't be entitled?

I don't think HMRC have failed to take into account childcare. The letters have gone to everyone who HMRC THINK will be nil award from April based on the info on the system.

Most of the cases I have looked into further, like this, are because HMRC are basing awards on PY income (don't have a CY estimate) or the childcare costs/other info is not up to date.

IQ

MissMoneypenny

choclover wrote: »

Personally, I think house prices have a lot to answer to,

High rents have a lot to answer for, too. Interestingly, both pushed up by the last Labour government. Mortgage interest rates lowered when the house prices started to drop in 2005 and bank regulations lowered to make borrowing made much easier, to push house prices up. Then some of the last government bought themselves some rental properties, increased LHA rates to push rents up, while making it much easier to get rid of tenant by creating the Section 21 notice.

choclover wrote: »

I agree mortgage rates have been a lot higher in the past, however house prices were a lot lower and so even now mortgage repayments are a lot higher than they used to be.

House prices suddenly going out of range of young people, isn't something that is just happening to todays young. 75% of my net wages went on my just my mortgage when I first bought a house in 1980.

I just spoke to my sister and she said she and her husband paid 68% of their joint net wages on their first mortgage in the 70s, but had higher train fares to work than I did as they had to move further out of London to be able to buy a property.

No free nursery care or childcare paid by the state then too and interest rates were much higher too at about 12%.

You're kidding yourself if you think it is harder now that it has been before.

choclover wrote: »

Statistically, couples are having fewer children now then they were 100 years ago.

The birth pill only came out 50 years ago. Contraception is now freely available and is free on the NHS.

choclover wrote: »

Never even heard of this film, and certainly was not shown it at school.

Children don't need this film now as they know they know that welfare will support any children they don't provide for.

If you are interested in watching it, it is on youtube, but have the tissues nearby. It certainly encouraged children to work hard at school
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KSAkX1YDTs&feature=related

choclover wrote: »

I agree to a certain extent, it annoys me that some people (I know some personally) that don't work, don't want to work, and claim massive amounts from the government in benefits for various things.

What has become very clear from this board is that many parents who work are also claiming "massive amounts from the goverment" too! It's staggering to read threads on here where a youngester on £50 (ish) a week JSA is getting slated by posters who are claiming more in welfare payments (mainly tax credits) than the childless youngster is!

choclover wrote: »

If you don't agree with the government you should vote for someone else or even write to your MP to complain,

Why do you don't think I don't agree with this government? I agree with their welfare reform bill and their view that benefits should return to being a safety net and not something for people to live on longterm. I assume you realise that tax credits are a welfare payment? And that soon they will be going (as will other income based welfare payments) and be part of the new Universal Credit?

The country would have lost it's tripple A rating with the last government and still might if we don't make severe cuts and pay back all the debts that Blair/Brown left us with. If we lose the tripple A rating, then the country will have to pay back the borrowing at higher interest rates. We have higher debts than Spain and they have already had to be bailed out.

choclover wrote: »

but there's really no need to come on this thread to tell people they shouldn't be claiming if they are entitled to it.

But some aren't going to be "entitled" to it now. I have put plenty of suggestions on this thread to help people be able to earn extra cash to make up for their welfare reductions and any future reductions to come. However, it seems that some just aren't interested in earning more money and just want the welfare state to continue to support their families and would rather moan about how hard it is now, despite the fact that the generous welfare payments have made the last decade, the easiest time of all for parents.

You can moan about your welfare payment cuts, or you can look at how to up your earned income. The choice is yours.

Anubis_2

The country would have lost it's tripple A rating with the last government and still might if we don't make severe cuts and pay back all the debts that Blair/Brown left us with. If we lose the tripple A, then the country will have to pay back the borrowing at higher interest rates. We have higher debts than Spain and they have already had to be bailed out.

And who's fault is that? The welfare claimants or the greedy Banks?

House prices where a heck of a lot cheaper in 1980 than they are today. My house back then has risen many x what it was originally and it is a lot more difficult for the young to get on the housing ladder today.

wellynever

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

What has become very clear from this board is that many parents who work are also claiming "massive amounts from the goverment" too! It's staggering to read threads on here where a youngester on £50 (ish) a week JSA is getting slated by posters who are claiming more in welfare payments (mainly tax credits) than the childless youngster is!

Best bit of a post I've read on this board for a while and so so true, You get people bashing people on ESA and DLA plus people on JSA yet 99% of the bashers get more in CB and CTC i can never really work out why they feel the need to bash when they get more benefits than most.

Anubis_2

wellynever wrote: »

Best bit of a post I've read on this board for a while and so so true, You get people bashing people on ESA and DLA plus people on JSA yet 99% of the bashers get more in CB and CTC i can never really work out why they feel the need to bash when they get more benefits than most.

I agree. Some even pretend they are whiter than white and not claiming certain benefits too.

MissMoneypenny

Anubis wrote: »

And who's fault is that? The welfare claimants or the greedy Banks?

The banking crisis has been caused by 4 things:-

Mainly, it has been caused by the people who walked away from their debts.

Then the changing of the banking laws by Gordon Brown, that made it easier for people you wouldn't lend a fiver too, to be able to get a mortgage. Gone were the "must have a deposit and no debts and proof you can save" and in came the 125%' interest only' mortgages. Then we have those that committed mortgage fraud and made false declations with inflated wages claims, to get a self cert mortgage.

Then came the mistake by the banks that they though people would always pay their mortgages and tried to make a quick profit by getting these mortgages and selling them on (as lenders always do). The defaulters debts and those mortgages from those who really could never afford a buy house, are now known as 'toxic debt'. In some states in the US, people were just handing back the keys to their houses and there were no laws to chase them for their debts. The lax bankrupcy laws in the UK also made it easy for people to walk away from debts.

US bankers quicky passed this toxic debt on by bundling this toxic debt with some good stuff, gave it a high rating, created an insurance to guarantee that rating (that, as it turns out, couldn't pay out on all toxic debt claims) and sold it on under the pretence of a good buy., And so it went on. The debters toxic debt, became a hot potato. Governments, including our own Blair/Brown, were slow to act. In fact in the UK, that government seemed to be encouraging people to take debts out against the inflated house prices they created (Mortgage Equity Withdrawal) and to spend this money to keep the economy going!

Then add all the Euro problems, where Germany wanted the Euro based on their economy and even though the signs showed this wouldn't work for all countries, they refused to bend. We have had to bail out the Euro, but fortunatley the voters in the UK finally saw sense and put in a new government. Gone are the days when Blair signed anything and the UK,through Cameron, stood up to the Germans and French and voted "no" when they wanted him to sign a deal that would have meant that the UK paid 95% of Euro debt.

The French government recently made another failed grab at other countries money and was quickly thwarted by banks trading in London, US and Hong Kong.

London is managing to still be the world trade centre, they fought off a grab by the US a few years ago to get this, but very attractive packages from Hong Kong will also certainly mean the UK lose all this revenue in the not too distant future.

We will have to bail out the Euro in part and we have had had to give massive extra loans to help Irelend, who are our closest neighbour. No doubt, we will have to give extra help to France too as they have now lost their triple A rating and they loaned heavily to some of the Euro PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) and in particular, to Greece. The reason we will have to give extra financial help to France, is because we have loaned to them.

Then add all the massive borrowng some crazy governmnents did just to create a feel good factor and buy votes; like the overly generous welfare payments from the UKs New Labour; the encouragemnet they did to attract more future Labour voters to the UK; pushing up of the housing bubble; encouragement to borrow more by lax lending laws and encouraging things like withdrawing equity and to buy things, to keep the flailing economy going.

Most banks will pay back the money they owe and the taxpayer will get a good interest for their loan. We will never get back all the money from overly genereous welfare payments or all the various quangos and state created jobs to fiddle the jobless figure.

Interestingly, some banks were allowed to get into a bigger mess and then get bigger bailouts from taxpayers by Gordon Brown i.e the 2 banks who have cost the taxpayer the most are the Scottish registered banks, Royal bank of Scotland and Halifax. Brown acted to stop Bradford and Bingley and share holders lost their money, but Brown allowed Royal Bank of Scotland shares to go even lower than when he stepped in to B&B, and then still allowed RBS shareholders to keep their shares in a the biggest bailout to a bank. Nice big payout given to the RBS boss too.

I'm sure most tax credits welfare claiments realised their very generous welfare wouldn't contine forever. Even if they didn't think about where the money was coming from to pay these before, the papers have been full of the cost of the welfare state over the last few years. The welfare payments for pensions, tax credits and housing are our biggest drain on taxes.

Anubis wrote: »

House prices where a heck of a lot cheaper in 1980 than they are today. My house back then has risen many x what it was originally

The last government created the housing bubble that pushed these up, but government welfare payments like tax credits have meant that not many people pay 70% of their net income on mortgages now. As with all bubbles, they burst. The biggest bubble ever was created by Gordon Brown, the man who once said 'no more boom and bust'.

Anubis wrote: »

and it is a lot more difficult for the young to get on the housing ladder today.

It should be more difficult for people to get mortgages today We can't continue with allowing people with debts to have 125% motgages and/or an 'interest only' mortgage with no repayment vehicle in place. That is what has got us into this mess we are in now! We need to go back to making people save for depostis and get repayment mortgages

Northern Ireland has already had a 25% bust in the housing market and its going to get easier for young people to buy here soon as our house prices are also dropping, but they need to learn to save for a deposit.