Tax Credits Suspended!

jackbanana

Hello, I wondered if anyone has been in a similar situation? We moved house 5 months ago and informed tax credits as soon as we had the new keys. No problems, payments were made as scheduled, until last week! I contacted tax credits to find out why the payment had been missed, apparently they had sent a letter to our old address (even though our new address was on file). The letter sent to our old address had been returned and so our tax credits were suspended which I was told was standard procedure. I was told the suspension had been lifted and I would receive my tax credits today. Still no payment. I called again today and was told that I just had to keep checking the bank account, the payments had been released but they had no timescale of when I could expect it to go into the bank. With it being the Easter hols, we have had to pay for childcare so we can both work. This has left us with £9 to our name and no idea when we will have the tax credits(plus direct debits going out tomorrow but we've had to use this money for the childcare, meaning charges from the bank!) I called the tax credit helpline again to ask if we could collect a payment from the office but was told that this was impossible as the payment had already been released, yet again they couldn't give me a timescale of when to expect it. I have no idea how we are going to pay for the children's school lunches when they go back to school on monday and we have no one who we can borrow the money from. Has anyone been in this situation? how long did it take for you to get your payments? I have £9 to feed a family of 4 and no idea when we might get our payments, please help!!