30hr element

fluffy70

Hi- can anyone help? I supervise someone at work who is part time and has a contract for 20hrs per week but due to staff shortages I have been able to increase her hours to 30 per week on a rolling monthly contract - she has called tax credits to update them that she has increased her hours and thought that she would benefit from the 30 hour element - she has a daughter in full time education as well so receives WTC and CTC. However she has been told that the 30hr element is only applied to a household income of less than £12000 per year and therefore she won't get it - is this true or is it a recent change? I know that when i worked 30hrs per week I received the 30hr 'bonus' element and I was certainly earning more than £12000.
She currently earns about £14000 for the 30hrs - I tried to work out what she would be on as an hourly rate for the below £12000 pa/ 30hrs rule and it came out as less than minimum wage so surely that can't be right?

Horseunderwater

Is this person single? If so the income limit is approx. £12k Gross income / year. The 30 hour element does apply, but due to income will not be paid. The WTC threshold is £6420, so any income over that amount will be tapered down at a rate of 41% until no WTC is due. If this person really wants to see what they may get then use the on line calculator on this site called 5 minute benefit checker to input all income details and it will give them a better idea of what they will get.

fluffy70

Thanks Horseunderwater - she's a single parent so its only her income coming into the house. It's a shame as she's actually turned out to be financially worse off by increasing her hours to 30 from 20 per week. her daughter leaves college in July as well so her money will again drop - I'll have to keep thinking about the staff levels and maybe I can swing an increase to full time if she needs it later in the year

Icequeen99

Horseunderwater wrote: »

Is this person single? If so the income limit is approx. £12k Gross income / year. The 30 hour element does apply, but due to income will not be paid. The WTC threshold is £6420, so any income over that amount will be tapered down at a rate of 41% until no WTC is due. If this person really wants to see what they may get then use the on line calculator on this site called 5 minute benefit checker to input all income details and it will give them a better idea of what they will get.

Not true in all cases.

Adding the 30 hour might not cause more WTC to be paid, but it could mean more CTC is paid for some people.

The 30 hour element also means the cut off point changes.

In this case it is possible it doesn't make any difference because her income is just absorbing it yet her income is lower than the CTC threshold so it doesn't give her any more CTC.

IQ

Icequeen99

fluffy70 wrote: »

Thanks Horseunderwater - she's a single parent so its only her income coming into the house. It's a shame as she's actually turned out to be financially worse off by increasing her hours to 30 from 20 per week. her daughter leaves college in July as well so her money will again drop - I'll have to keep thinking about the staff levels and maybe I can swing an increase to full time if she needs it later in the year

Actually though when her daughter leaves she will need to work at least 30 to keep getting WTC unless she has a disability (and presuming there are no other children)

IQ

zagfles

Icequeen99 wrote: »

Not true in all cases.

Adding the 30 hour might not cause more WTC to be paid, but it could mean more CTC is paid for some people.

The 30 hour element also means the cut off point changes.

In this case it is possible it doesn't make any difference because her income is just absorbing it yet her income is lower than the CTC threshold so it doesn't give her any more CTC.

IQ

Not sure what you're saying here IQ, but getting the 30 hour element will always add £790pa to the award (either extra WTC or CTC), assuming the OP's employee was getting some tax credits previously, which she was. Of course the increased income could reduce the award (is that what you meant above?), but in this case it doesn't look like income would have gone up by more than the £5k disregard.

In any case, whoever told her about the £12k figure was talking rubbish and should be ignored. Hope it wasn't HMRC! It makes no sense even if she didn't have a child.

Icequeen99

zagfles wrote: »

Not sure what you're saying here IQ, but getting the 30 hour element will always add £790pa to the award (either extra WTC or CTC), assuming the OP's employee was getting some tax credits previously, which she was. Of course the increased income could reduce the award (is that what you meant above?), but in this case it doesn't look like income would have gone up by more than the £5k disregard.

In any case, whoever told her about the £12k figure was talking rubbish and should be ignored. Hope it wasn't HMRC! It makes no sense even if she didn't have a child.

That's why you shouldn't type replies when talking on the phone and not reading it all properly.

Sorry for the confusion. Ignore the last part of what I said. Essentially I was saying that if income was higher than WTC cut-off you might not see any change to WTC (i.e. suddenly getting any) by adding 30 hr element, but it would change CTC.

As you say 12k is wrong for a single parent. It would be 15,910 cut-off without the 30hr element and obviously higher with, so at an income of 14,000 she should get some WTC and see some change to it from the 30hr element.

As long as the helpline applied the change on the system it should re-calculate the award automatically. She just needs to check her next award notice, or if she doesn't get one ring again.

IQ