Question re ATLAS system - WTC & HB related

Cate1976

Situation is my husband's hours dropped to 15 weekly from 17th March. The WTC run on is up tomorrow. Housing Benefit is adjusted when I give council his wage slips to copy. Today, I've received our adjusted award for both HB & CTS. The problem is in the award letters, the income section for period beginning this Monday coming has the WTC listed which it shouldn't have. I thought that via ATLAS, HB would be able to see that from Monday, we won't be getting WTC & should have removed it. The difference means that instead of getting £121.15 week HB we're getting £100.15 & for CTS, instead of getting £20.?? a week we're only getting £13.32 week. With the CTS, it means our council tax bill is £50 a month instead of £10 approx. Cynic in me suspects that WTC run on being in both last & current tax years, it won't be sorted until I do tax credits renewal. The difference between what we are having to pay & what we should be paying means not being able to pay more than the minimum off debts.

Thanks to anyone who can tell me if I'm right about this & how to go about getting it rectified if my possibly cynical suspicion is right.

nannytone_2

you start by taking your letter from wtc that states when the wtc will stop to the council

Cate1976

Just checked award letter & tax credits have him as working 20 hours a week after I phoned them on 28th March & told them his hours have dropped to 15. Award letter is dated 28th March. Award also says WTC will be £74.89 week from 14th April. To sort this mess I'm guessing that I need to ring tax credits on Monday to tell them of the mistake. Also put the £74.89 into a/c that it won't be spent. HB & CTS will still count it as income, problem is when WTC ask for it back, HB don't allow for repayment of overpayments. We're going to be hit twice which isn't fair Know this as they have my Carer's Allowance at £61.35 but I'm losing £16.06 off it for repayment of old social fund loan. I need for financial things to be right for me to budget, especially with 3 kids under 5 & trying to pay debts off. Have a target of June 26th and there's a good reason for it being that date.

nannytone_2

of course it will show your carers allowance at the full amount!
they wont gove you extra HB because you are paying off a debt

Cate1976

Elements section only has to 05/04/2014. Then in part 3 it says:

Summary of Payments
Working Tax Credit still to be paid. £0.00
Child Tax Credit still to be paid. £0.00
Total. £0.00

Working Tax Credit
Payments in 2014-2015
These are provisional payments. They take account of changes that we can predict will affect the amount of your award.
We will make all payments direct to you.
07/04/2014. £75.16
Then every week until further notice £74.89

Child Tax Credit
Payments in 2014-2015
These are the payments we will make provisionally. They take account of changes we can predict - for example a child reaching 16.
07/04/2014. £226.09
Then every week until further notice. £225.66

They haven't taken WTC off from week beginning Monday coming.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

Tomorrow has yet to happen. Once tomorrow becomes today then your claim will be recalculated - it will only be recalculated from the following Monday after any change of circumstances even if that change happened on a Monday..

As regards your Carers Allowance the full amount before any deductions is taken into account so they are using the correct amount. Why should the taxpayer subsidise your repayments with extra housing benefit?

Cate1976

I don't expect taxpayers to subsidise my repayments but in this case it appears that Tax Credits situation is going to cost me money. I would have expected the award letter dated 28th March to show WTC only being paid until 13/04/2014.

This is what I think is going to happen based on the award letter.

Monday 14/04/2014, I'll be paid both CTC & WTC at which point I'll phone tax credits and explain, it'll take them time to process it so probably 21st April, I'll also be paid both CTc & WTC. Obviously the WTC on 14th & 21st april are over payments. HMRC will want this back which is fair enough and I'll pay the £149.78 back in one go willingly. The problem I see this causing is that it'll still show on ATLAS that WTC being paid up to 27th April. This means that HB & CTS will be calculated without the WTC from 28th April rather than 14th April, this is going to cost us approximately £65, this £65 could be used towards paying off debts. That's unless, when tax credits ask for the overpayment back, they'll update ATLAS to show entitlement to WTC ending on 13/04/2014?

What I'm hoping is that come Monday, only the CTC will be paid and ATLAS will be updated which will enable HB & CTS to be reassessed without the WTC. I thought that when I phoned on 28th March to tell tax credits that my husband's hours have gone down to 15 that they would have updated the system to show WTC ending on 13/04/14?

Just to add, my husband & I aren't scroungers, he would work more hours if he could but his health isn't great at the moment. Once the girls are in school full time, I'll be looking for work as well, girl's school has an after school club which is reasonably priced, OFSTED registered and for our youngest, we'll use a mixture of OFSTED registered child care & my parents maybe able to help as well. Had planned on looking for work from last September until I found out I was pregnant last March, was 17 weeks by then. Girls are in nursery in the afternoons at the moment & my husband works 2.30-5.30pm.

Cate1976

This morning, both CTC & WTC have been paid, the only difference being that it's been paid in 2 desperate amounts. I've moved the WTC to savings a/c to make sure it's not spent. Big question is has run on being in both last & current tax years caused a mess up? I'll be phoning tax credits later to ask what date they have for run on ending. What I don't want is for WTC to keep being paid until renewal due to mess up it's causing with HB & CTS.

Cate1976

Phoned Tax Credits & HB on Tuesday. Tax Credits said it'll take a while for them to update their system & the one HB can access. Got paid WTC again today. HB have said that if Tax Credits award shows no entitlement to WTC from 14th April, they'll reassess HB without from 14th.

With WTC, I'm convinced the reason I'm still getting it is due to run on covering both last & current tax years. Reason being that last year, when my husband's hours dropped from 30 to 20, the run on was only paid for the 4 weeks then stopped.

Obviously both payments I've had since Monday are overpayments which need to be paid back which I will do willingly. Question I have is how HMRC will want it back. Will they ask for it in one go (have put both payments in bank a/c so it's available) or will they deduct a few pounds each week from the CTC? I would prefer the latter at the moment as we're on a very tight budget due to husband's wages being low not just this month (paid for hours worked in March, not entitled to SSP for 2 weeks sickness) & will be low next month due to Easter holidays.

I think the biggest issue is that when CTS is reassessed, I won't get the difference between what I will have paid & what I should have paid back. HB will refund if they've underpaid.

Cate1976

Thanks for that, I wasn't sure if WTC overpayment could be repaid by deduction from CTC. The fact it can will make budgeting easier, still got some juggling to do though. Job for when I can get a couple of hours undisturbed to do it.