confusion with benefit calculators

saintly_2

hoping someone is able to help

i have put my earnings and my husbands esa into the calculators on entitledto.com and the calculator on the government site. Entitled to says we are not entitled to any working tax and the government one says im entitled to £89 working tax credits a week. tbh we are not expecting to be entitled to anything due to my earnings but its confusing as its a big difference.

breakdown of what i put in

my monthly wage £1400 after tax, ni, student loan
oh has been on cont esa since Oct and was on ssp from april till Oct, £307 per month (he is still on assesment rate)

Rent £525 pcm
CT £91pm


i care for him for around 40 + hours a week, washing dressing, physio, etc. he is housebound for the 4 days a week i am in work as we live on 3rd floor and he can't get up or down stairs safely.( have applied for dla but still waiting for a decision)


as i said, we're not expecting anything due to my wages which is the best calculator to use?

thanks for your time

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Horseunderwater

When you use entitled to calculator - you must input gross wages amount not the net figure after tax/nat insurance. If you do not do this it will give you a wrong answer. The ESA is selected by main phase/assessment phase and WRAG/support group. Your council tax should be what you'd pay per year in full. So for you it should be gross wages for you and him last year, then you state income has gone down by £x,000 and they will ask for this years estimated income, which then has to include SSP & ESA assessment phase, which for now is all you can input as he has not been awarded anything yet. And that will not happen until he gets form ESA50 to complete and return to ATOS - technically that should happen within the 13 weeks period, but it often does not. They are very snowed under at present. Also until you hear about the DLA and the care award - you will not be able to consider the possility of getting carers allowance, which due to you hours and wages probably is not an option anyway. See how you go doing this and then come back.

Caz3121

I suspect you may have indicated that it was Income Based ESA rather than contribution based. There seems to be a bug in the HMRC site that if you put in income based benefits it gives a default figure - not smart enough to realise that the partners income that is entered would mean that income based could not be claimed!
I expect that zero would be the correct result

Icequeen99

Caz3121 wrote: »

I suspect you may have indicated that it was Income Based ESA rather than contribution based. There seems to be a bug in the HMRC site that if you put in income based benefits it gives a default figure - not smart enough to realise that the partners income that is entered would mean that income based could not be claimed!
I expect that zero would be the correct result

It isn't a bug on the HMRC site, that is how their system processe claims and how the legislation works. If a person is in receipt of IB JSA/ESA their partner's income is ignored and maximum tax credits are awarded. There are lots of overpayments of tax credits where people tick the wrong box on the form for income vs. contribution.

Also, if the OP was on benefits last year, their tax credits could be higher this year due to the £10,000 disregard.

saintly_2

Thanks for the replies, never claimed benefits before the esa so all new to this.

Sure i put my earnings in before tax and ni, oh well nevermind

Didnt think we should be entitled to anything

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