Working Tax credit- I don't understand how it works

borderline

I thought I might be entitled to some working tax credit but I used the benefits calculator and unless I entered something wrong the result came back with a 0, nothing , nada.. no entitled to anything
Here's the thing... in June I lost my job, I was unemployed for 3 months.. at the end of September I started a new job but this new job pays about £5000 less of what I was earning before , old job 21,000, this one about 16,000 ( I couldn't find a better payed job)
After I pay my rent, I have only about £300 left to pay all the bills, eat and live .... I was giving the impression at the job centre that I should be able to get some help with tax credits but the calculator says no...
I live on my own, no kids or anything... based on my current salary against my old salary and the amount I'm left to live on, could that be right that I can't get a penny?:(

liney

Your rent is over £800 per month?

borderline

liney wrote: »

Your rent is over £800 per month?

£700 per month, it's London and it's a tiny studio flat, I'm not renting a mansion

liney

I just did a run through and it seems you might get Housing benefit of about £50 per week, so put in an application. No Tax Credits can up though.

You should be picking up £1141 per month after deductions - are you on the right tax code?

happenstance

that's how it works, if you don't have kids in this already over populated country / world your not deemed to be doing anything useful and are expected to work full time on a low wage to pay the massively over priced rent and bills.

borderline

liney wrote: »

I just did a run through and it seems you might get Housing benefit of about £50 per week, so put in an application. No Tax Credits can up though.

You should be picking up £1141 per month after deductions - are you on the right tax code?

No tax credit at all? so why does it say if the income falls below £2,500 some tax credit might be earned?

I can't claim housing benefit because due to my redundancy payment the money in my current account is just over £16,000. I don't have any other money anywhere else

I don't get a salary in this job, I get paid £8 an hour ( I calculated roughly it works out about £16,000 with 40 hours a week) paid every two weeks and I just got paid for my first two weeks and including 3 hours of overtime I did, I only got paid £560 after tax... and yes, I'm in the same tax code as before

karent_2

Unfortunately, I think the cut off for tax credits for a single person is around £13k, so you won't be entitle to anything. Net pay on 16k is about £1140 per month so you will have around £440 a month to cover travel, bills and food. I guess that is do-able with a bit of care. Lots of advice on other boards on cutting costs, especially if you post your income and outgoings.

Good luck.

borderline

karent wrote: »

Unfortunately, I think the cut off for tax credits for a single person is around £13k, so you won't be entitle to anything. Net pay on 16k is about £1140 per month so you will have around £440 a month to cover travel, bills and food. I guess that is do-able with a bit of care. Lots of advice on other boards on cutting costs, especially if you post your income and outgoings.

Good luck.

oh dear £13k ? I didn't see that anywhere.... No, the £16k I should be more or less earning is before tax unfortunately

Jobseeeker

You have £16k in savings just now, but pretty soon it will drop below £16k then you can apply for some HB.

Would it be cheaper renting a room in a flat share?

zagfles

As above check your tax code - if you're only getting £1000pm take home on a £16k salary then you're being overtaxed. Check if they have your new job down as a second job, ie tax code BR. You should have a tax code of something like 944L.

For tax credits - what was your income for the 2012/13 tax year and what is your income likely to be for the 2013/14 tax year? (it's income over the whole tax year which is relevant).

borderline

Jobseeeker wrote: »

You have £16k in savings just now, but pretty soon it will drop below £16k then you can apply for some HB.

Would it be cheaper renting a room in a flat share?

slightly cheaper but not that much. I still need to be able to get to work without having to pay for a monthly travelcard, I can't afford one and I can't travel across town since I have to start work at 7 am.
I think my only option is to find another job that pays better but I tried for 3 months without any luck and yeah wait until my savings drop:(