help following drop in income

Hexagon

Hi, I am about to take voluntary redundancy. My current salary is £35000 & my wife earns £12000. I am completely changing jobs & have managed to find another job but paying a lot less £18,500, so this will mean our combined household income will drop from £47000 to £30500. We have two children age 5 & 12, does anyone know if we would be able to claim any top up working tax or other benefits with the big drop in income? Thanks

Caz3121

working tax credits cutoff for a couple is around £18k
tax credits works in tax years so your income for this year will be
£35k/12*8 months + £18,500/12*4 months = £29,500 + your wifes £12k = £41,500
based on that you would not qualify for tax credits assuming you have no childcare costs...

you can find the entitlement tables here https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tax-credits-entitlement-tables

TELLIT01

It's going to require a lifestyle change I'm afraid rather than getting anything from the state. I've been in almost the identical situation. I'm assuming if you've taken VR there is a reasonable package attached to it so you're just going to have to dip into that.

merlin68

You can ring tax credits who initially base it on last years award, then when you have award notice ring up with new figure. Which should trigger a payment. The cut of with two kids is £33000 , which would net £17 a week in tax credits.

nannytone_2

merlin68 wrote: »

You can ring tax credits who initially base it on last years award, then when you have award notice ring up with new figure. Which should trigger a payment. The cut of with two kids is £33000 , which would net £17 a week in tax credits.

as explained above ....
the OP and his wife will be earning more than the tax credit cut off in the year 14/15 already.
add to that JSA pauments and they will be way over tax credit thresholds until april next year

merlin68

We had a drop in income in april i rang them and they adjusted tax credits to higher amount.

nannytone_2

April is the beginning of the financial year though.
we are in december so the OP has already had 8 months of his full wage .... so around 24k and his wife will be earning 12k. add to that the further 6k he will earn from his new job.
that bring his total 14/15 income estimate to 42k.... way abone the amount that would entitle him to any tax credits for the current year

Hexagon

Thanks very much for your replies and answers they are very helpful. I now understand that between now & April 2015 i will not qualify for any working tax credits/Benefits. From April 2015 assuming i am earning the £18500 & my wife £12000 giving us a total household income of £30500 do you know if we would qualify for any working tax/benefit from April 2015 for the new tax year please & if so roughly how much? It's such an absolute nightmare trying to work the tax benefits calculations out. Thanks again!

merlin68

about £17 a week.

Hexagon

Thanks Merlin, £17 a week is better than nothing i suppose.

Hexagon

oh dear i felt at least getting £17 a week was something, now £5 a week :-( Thanks for the info anyway