WTC not entitled ?

thorsoak

We are asked to be kind to new posters ..should not new posters be asked to be polite to people who take the trouble to respond to their posts?

It was OP who complained that "Its no wonder people pop out kids left right and center and sit on there jacks all day raking it in .." whilst complaining that he could not get any income for staying home with his child.

evenasus

thorsoak wrote: »

I was a SAHM for six years when our children were tiny - we had no tax credits then -and family allowance was not paid for the first child. Nor did we get any housing benefit - yet we survived.

Me too. I didn't go back to work until my children were 14 & 16.

FBaby

If stay at home parents were paid to be at home I sorely doubt there would be many left working making no traces left to pay to stay home.

stroptart

Okay. I apologise if I make assumptions here. You gave an income figure of around £21k. If this is what your tax credits is based on, remember that tax credits ask for last years income. I E 2013-4.
And you said that you had just had a baby. So this year's income will be lower as your partner will be on maternity pay.
You need to work out what this years income will be, remember to disregard the first £100 each week of maternity pay. Then tell tax credits about the reduction in income.
It might not make a lot of difference as they don't count some of the reduction. But it's worth a try.

Studebacher_Hoch

Is it your first child (or only child under 16)? Have you tried applying for a Sure Start Maternity Grant?

"3. Eligibility

Usually, to qualify for a Sure Start Maternity Grant there must be no other children in your family and you must get one of these benefits:

• Income Support
• income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• Pension Credit
• Child Tax Credit at a rate higher than the family element
• Working Tax Credit that includes a disability or severe disability element
• Universal Credit"

- source .gov website (too new to post direct links, sorry).

It seems like you're getting more than the family element (£547.50) per year of CTC so you may well be eligible. Time limited though (3 months after child's birth) so apply as soon as possible in case you're eligible - 0345 603 6967

wildwestfan

zagfles wrote: »

Yes you did. In the days of family allowance there were "tax credits" in the form of income tax allowances, eg child allowances and married allowance. A family with one child would get about double the tax allowance of a single person.

If that were the case today the OP's partner would pay no tax on the first £20k of her income, saving £2000 in tax. Pretty much what they get paid in "tax credits".

I'm sure your figures are incorrect.

As a married man with 4 children in 1970 I certainly was paying income tax on a factory wage. In fact I remember hoping that our child would be born before April 6th as that would have meant we got the whole years tax free allowance for her. It was going to be worth about £15 as a tax refund. This would be about £215 today so for our 4 children we would have benefited by approx at today's values £1000 a year in less tax to pay and family allowance for 3 of them.....nothing paid for the first child.

So the additional tax allowances were nothing like as generous as today's child related benefits and of course there was always the little matter of having to be working to gain any benefits from extra tax allowances.

Elzmumof3

I dont understand the issue with using your wifes wages for your own expenses, its part of being in a relationship - for 8 years my hubby worked full time while i had our kids, now he is a SAHD and I work fulltime - we arent entitled to WTC either, but the way i see it the money coming into the house is 'our' money, not mine!

zagfles

wildwestfan wrote: »

I'm sure your figures are incorrect.

As a married man with 4 children in 1970 I certainly was paying income tax on a factory wage. In fact I remember hoping that our child would be born before April 6th as that would have meant we got the whole years tax free allowance for her. It was going to be worth about £15 as a tax refund. This would be about £215 today so for our 4 children we would have benefited by approx at today's values £1000 a year in less tax to pay and family allowance for 3 of them.....nothing paid for the first child.

So the additional tax allowances were nothing like as generous as today's child related benefits and of course there was always the little matter of having to be working to gain any benefits from extra tax allowances.

What about the married allowance?

My figures were approximate and based on the proportion of the allowance for being married/single parent, and having children.

I'll try to be more accurate. It's surprisingly hard to find figures for allowances going back that far, and there were complications like earned income relief. This is the best I found but it only goes back to 1979:

http://www.taxhistory.co.uk/Income Tax Allowances.htm

So a family with one child in 1979 would get the married allowance plus child allowance, of 1815+365 compared to a single person who'd get 1165, so the family with one child would get £1015 more in tax allowances over the basic allowance a single person would get.

Basic rate tax was 30%, so the additional allowances would be worth £304.50, which is about £1450 in today's terms.

With 4 children, the additional allowances over and above the basic single person's allowance would be 2110, worth £633, about £3000 in today's money.

Which makes them worse for those on below average incomes, but probably better for most on above average incomes.

But the main point was that those who claim "tax credits" didn't exist when they were bringing up their kids are wrong. There's been support in the tax and/or the benefits systems for all families since at least the early 70's.

Lower earners were supported by family income supplement, family credit, WFTC, and higher earners by tax allowances, family allowance, child benefit. Virtually everyone got at least one of these methods of support - the only exception may have been the idle rich, ie those with significant wealth who didn't work.

It's only now, since 2013, that some families get no support whatsoever, with child benefit being withdrawn for "high earners".