Tax credits - can anyone explain?!

emmam202

Hi

I just had my tax credits renewal final notice thingy in the post. Our estimated income was originally used for our claim and this was £38412. Our actual income was only £26534 so I was expecting to get some more money out of them because of the big drop. I have actually only had a small amount paid to me and I don't really get it!

We ended up with 0 wtc 0 childcare element and 529 ctc.

Can anyone explain why such a big drop in our joint income didn't result in a bigger increase in our payments?

I can't find anything online which explains it to me and from past experience ringing tax credits doesn't usually get me a decent explanation!

Thanks in advance

Em

gingergee

Do you have children? I think the cut off with 1 child is £26 x Maybe that will explain it. The geniuses will arrive soon and confirm, or correct im sure x

emmam202

Yes I have 1 child. I don't want to sound greedy but this whole system is such a mystery and the people on the phone aren't particularly keen to explain their secret formula!

Icequeen99

Do you have your award notice? If you post the calculation part (where it says what WTC elements you get, CTC elements and teh reduction due to income we can check it)

Also, what are the two income figures showing on your latest award notice.

The rules for tax credits have changed a lot this year. So the cut-off limits are lower.

IQ

indebtinsussex

emmam202 wrote: »

Yes I have 1 child. I don't want to sound greedy but this whole system is such a mystery and the people on the phone aren't particularly keen to explain their secret formula!

thats what I think as well, I have no idea how it all works, all I know is that one day we had 3 identical letters from the same day giving us 3 completely different benefit amounts, and when we asked them which figure to expect, all they would say is the figure on the last letter! lol

emmam202

Thanks IceQueen, these are the figures on my Final tax credits decision notice 6/4/2011-22/1/2012 (was ended early due to splitting up)

Working Tax Credit
Basic - 1533
2nd Adult - 1556.36
30-hour element - 630.72
Total elements - 3720.08
Reduction due to income - 3720.08
Amount for period - £0

Childcare element
From 4/1/12-22/1/12 - 147.40
Reduction due to income - 147.40
Amount for period - £0

Child Tax Credits
1 qualifying child - 2041.08
Basic - 435.08
Total - 2476.16
reduction due to income - 1946.90
amount for period - 529.26

income is 13529 for me and 13005 for my ex, it also mentions income for 2010-2011 was 38412

Icequeen99

emmam202 wrote: »

Thanks IceQueen, these are the figures on my Final tax credits decision notice 6/4/2011-22/1/2012 (was ended early due to splitting up)

Working Tax Credit
Basic - 1533
2nd Adult - 1556.36
30-hour element - 630.72
Total elements - 3720.08
Reduction due to income - 3720.08
Amount for period - £0

Childcare element
From 4/1/12-22/1/12 - 147.40
Reduction due to income - 147.40
Amount for period - £0

Child Tax Credits
1 qualifying child - 2041.08
Basic - 435.08
Total - 2476.16
reduction due to income - 1946.90
amount for period - 529.26

income is 13529 for me and 13005 for my ex, it also mentions income for 2010-2011 was 38412

That calculation doesn't look right. The reduction due to income is too low for income of 26,534. It is right on income of 24,194 which doesn't match with what you below.

When you say your income was 13529 and 13005 is that is what is on the award notice. Are those your figures for the whole 2011/12 tax year or just the amount you each earned before your split.

However, to answer your original question, the reason you didn't see much of a change even though there was a large fall in income is because the family element of CTC used to be guaranteed up to income of 40,000. The other elements of your tax credits would have cut out around 26,000. So when your income fell from 40,000 to 26,000 it doesn't make much difference because you were only getting the guaranteed bit, your other elements (WTC, childcare and CTC) were already taken away by around 26,000.

IQ

win123

Icequeen99

Hi I hope nobody minds me asking a question on here re working tax credit -
I am a single mother who has a son of 18 who is going back to do his second year college course I currently get £320 per month credits not sure how its worked out - I work full time and bring home around 1050 per month - I am really struggling to pay my mortgage at the moment as it has gone from interest only 504 per month to 730 and dont want to loose my home as my mother is disabled as well - I am thinking of working an extra 16 hours at the weekend which after tax and ins will probably come home with about £380 does anyone know if I will still be entilteld to working tax credit how much are you allowed to earn? Just wondering if its worth killing myself with a second job - My son will be leaving college next year anyway so will loose the child tax credit side of things but was just wondering re the working tax credit side of things please - Thanks for any help