Tax Credits - Changing from Weekly to Monthly

kirstle99 · 1 May 2013 at 8:02AM

Hi, does anyone know how smooth the process is for this? I really want to change from weekly to monthly (or 4 weekly whichever it is) payments so I can just have one tax credit coming in and one nursery payment going out.

I was trying to save a small amount to cover the gap between the change but haven't been able to do so.

So if I ask them to change it to monthly, do they give you a lump sum in advance or do you have to wait a couple of weeks?

davehughes182 · 1 May 2013 at 10:59AM

if you receive a lump sum then your payments will be lowered for the rest of the year to compensate for the change. I am not 100% sure if you do receive a lump sum though. HTH

LL30 · 1 May 2013 at 12:14PM

I've just changed mine today. I'll let you know what happens xx

kirstle99 · 1 May 2013 at 12:48PM

Thank you that would be brilliant

By lump sum I just meant do they pay a month in advance sorry I wasn't very clear

Horseunderwater · 1 May 2013 at 12:54PM

No they do not pay in advance. They pay on a 4 weekly basis as they become due. However it may be worth asking what the transitional payment arrangement could be. They might be able to set it nearer to say 2 weeks to start it off then it would only be 2 weeks to wait then an every 4 weekly payment from then on. Ring and ask.

Willbedebtfree1day · 5 May 2013 at 5:14PM

I recently changed mine from weekly to four weekly to help with budgeting and one of the questions I asked was how long would it be. Was told shouldnt be too long but couldnt say. I then phoned up after a couple of days to find out and it would have been nearly 3 weeks so I would not have been able to cover my bills. I had to change it back to weekly straight away. Unless you know you wont be short of money in the mean time I wouldnt do it.

LL30 · 8 May 2013 at 1:17PM

Just to let you know, I changed mine last week and they have gone through today (which is my normal day) at the new amount - I have been paid for 4 weeks. Does that make sense?! So I haven't had any gap to cover at all. Not sure if this is the norm, but it's what has happened in my case xx

squirrel10 · 8 May 2013 at 3:28PM

Did you just call them up LL30? I need to do this as falling behind with rent but we can't afford to be without for the 4 weeks.

squirrel10 · 8 May 2013 at 3:49PM

Just rang them quickly and they said they couldn't tell me if it would be processed in a week, two or even the 4 weeks as it all depends on how busy they are being pushed through - however if its was a shorter period than the 4 weeks, whilst I would still get what was due to me this yr I may end up getting less towards end of year (she was as confused by it as I was though as she just read out the guidance that they have on the screen when it went through to begin the changeover)

WantToBeSE · 8 May 2013 at 3:54PM

I'd like to get mine monthly too (i get weekly at the moment) but need to save up enough to see me through the month without them first.

LL30 · 8 May 2013 at 5:55PM

Maybe I was just lucky but like I said, I was paid my weekly amount last week, and then 4 weekly amount this week. I was lucky as I'm currently in a position whereby it didn't matter if I had to wait a while for them to sort themselves out (student bursary is through!).