Why do HMRC pay credits four-weekly?

merlin68

Just ring them up and change to weekly payments. I've always had mine weekly.

stevemLS

MegaMiniMouse wrote: »

Tax credits appear to be based, retrospectively, on the previous year's income and the final figure is decided upon at a later date. My daughter will be repaying HMRC's overpayments until 2022, and there is no guarantee that further overpayments will not be made.

Universal Credit, as you say, will be calculated monthly, and that will be hugely advantageous to all concerned.

Why is she taking so long to repay her overpayment when in post 1 she was ""loaded with money"

MegaMiniMouse

dori2o wrote: »

The initial tax credits award of any year is based upon the previous years income as ou correctly state (though it is not retrospective), but there is never any reason for overpayment to occur as long as any increase in income, above the disregard is notified to HMRC as early as possible rather than waiting for the next renewal period.

It is every individuals responsibility to notify HMRC of income changes for tax credit purposes. If your daughter didn't do that then she has only herself to blame I'm afraid.

As I said in the original post, my daughter is unable to get her head around the various complications of her various sources of income, and I believe there are huge numbers of people in a similar position. In my opinion, this is a significant part of the reason why many people on benefits struggle to budget effectively, and find themselves on the slippery slope to the moneylenders' doors. With my help, my daughter's situation is rapidly improving, but I never previously understood the complications of her financial affairs, and like you, I thought she had only herself to blame.

stevemLS wrote: »

Why is she taking so long to repay her overpayment when in post 1 she was ""loaded with money"

Because that is what HMRC told her to do.

MegaMiniMouse

blondebubbles wrote: »

She can always choose to pay more if she wishes.

Yes, but HMRC didn't tell her that, and since she is paying no interest charges, I am not about to advise her to increase her repayments when her payday loans are still costing her a fortune.

sheeps68

I do wish they had an option for all benefits to be paid monthly in arrears as it is what I'm used to with salary always being paid monthly in arrears and therefore all direct debits etc set up that way too.
Also I would have thought as the general idea is to get people into work where possible they would want to get people into that way of working and managing budget.

Tigsteroonie

I work for a company that pays salary 4-weekly. I like it, as it matches the frequency of our son's benefits. I would not like to change to monthly for some of the benefits (UC replacing CTC), whilst retaining a 4-weekly salary & other benefits

MegaMiniMouse

sheeps68 wrote: »

I do wish they had an option for all benefits to be paid monthly in arrears as it is what I'm used to with salary always being paid monthly in arrears and therefore all direct debits etc set up that way too.
Also I would have thought as the general idea is to get people into work where possible they would want to get people into that way of working and managing budget.

So far as I understand it, that is precisely the idea of Universal Credit, but it will be harder for people who have never been paid monthly (although even they probably already pay at least some bills monthly), and, also so far as I know, people on variable wages will have to enter their monthly details online, although it would be nice to think that there will be an alternative for people who really cannot deal with computers.

I have a friend whose wages vary quite a lot, and he has to go into the council offices with every payslip in order to get his housing benefit adjusted (I'm not sure whether or not he receives tax credits).

If Universal Credit is really struggling as much as people say, then I think that as a temporary measure, existing benefits should be paid either weekly or monthly - fortnightly and four-weekly payments don't really help anyone.

MegaMiniMouse

Tigsteroonie wrote: »

I work for a company that pays salary 4-weekly. I like it, as it matches the frequency of our son's benefits. I would not like to change to monthly for some of the benefits (UC replacing CTC), whilst retaining a 4-weekly salary & other benefits

You are in a very small minority, but there is no reason why four-weekly benefit payments should not be an option. Alternatively, you could select a weekly option, but leave the money in the bank until four payments have been made.

Many many years ago, I was paid four-weekly for a while, and I thought it was a pain in the neck.

sheramber

My husband was paid according to the number of weeks in the month,

Four weeks pay for a 4 week month and five weeks pay for a 5 week month.

MegaMiniMouse

sheramber wrote: »

My husband was paid according to the number of weeks in the month,

Four weeks pay for a 4 week month and five weeks pay for a 5 week month.

That's a good one, but it's no more precise than any of the other systems - apart from February (3 years out of 4) there is not actually any such thing as a four-week month, and there is never a five-week month. Most months are either 4 weeks and 2 days, or 4 weeks and 3 days. The system you describe simply means that in four months of the year, your husband received five weeks pay, and in the other 8 months, he received four weeks pay. In a leap year, monthly income means you have to work one day for free, but your employer will tell you that in three years out of four she pays you a third of a day's pay more than you have earned.