Free school meals and Tax Credits help

*Rainbow*Warrior*

Please can someone advise me? My husband was made redundant last year. He was receiving JSA, but now his 6 month entitlement has expired so although he still signs on we don't receive any money.

I work part time and earn approx 8k.

In order to claim free school meals the local authority tell me we have to earn less than 16k, and receive only Child Tax Credit. They say we are not eligible for free meals as we are receiving both Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit.

The reason I'm confused is the Tax Credit people say they have overpaid us so as it stands now we are actually not receiving either Working Tax or Child Tax Credits.

I don't understand the forms the Tax Credits have sent me - they seem to be based on income up to August 2015, they have all kinds of stuff like x.xx already collected back from you, x.xx is an adjustment to put your record straight, x.xx is still to be confirmed as overpaid.

I don't mean to sound grasping but it doesn't seem right that we can have literally just my part time income and my child benefit, and nothing else coming in, and not be entitled to free school meals. If they've overpaid us in the past, we can pay that back when our situation improves but right now we have so little coming in I just can't believe we are not entitled to free school meals.

Can someone explain the difference between Working Tax and Child Tax Credits please? Or offer any other advice?

Caz3121

unless you are working 24 hours per week minimum (the required hours for a couple) then you will not be in receipt of WTC at the moment

bloolagoon

Caz3121 wrote: »

unless you are working 24 hours per week minimum (the required hours for a couple) then you will not be in receipt of WTC at the moment

Don't you get child tax credits?

*Rainbow*Warrior*

I work 20 hours and my husband doesn't work at all. According to the last Tax Credits form I received (a couple of weeks ago) it shows Working Tax Credit AND Child Tax Credit paid for the period 6/4/15 to 31/8/15.

Then it says 0.00 still to be paid.

The form seems to be giving info relating to the period before September 2015. I don't think I've got anything for 2015-2016. But this form is what they've sent me when I rang them to ask for an up to date letter in order to claim the free school meals.

I'm confused.

*Rainbow*Warrior*

Thanks.

The notice states I work 20 hours and has no info about my husband, just his name and then it's blank.

In the income section it does show his only income was social security benefits (April to August), so that shows he's not working.

Yes my daughter is 16 and has just started 6th form college. I referred to it as school meals because 'free school meals' is a familiar term rather than 'free college meals'. Sorry for the confusion.

If I'm no longer eligible because of the working hours, I'm puzzled as to why the form shows both types of credit paid and refers to the past - so the form they have sent me doesn't reflect the true situation and doesn't help me with the local authority claim.

Also, I'm puzzled why it even shows Working Tax Credits on the form covering the period up to August. I wasn't aware of the 24 working hours rule, but my husband left work last summer so from then it was just my 20 hours. He got a short term job earlier this year but has been unemployed again since March, so since then it's been just my 20 hours. I've rang them and written to them at every change to keep them up to date.

*Rainbow*Warrior*

blondebubbles wrote: »

You say you work part time, you'll need to be more specific to offer advice.

How many hours do you work per week?

Tax credits also hold income for each tax year, can you clarify what you mean by saying they only have income until August 2015?

Sorry, I missed this post before.

I work 20 hours.

The form the Tax Credits have sent me states at the top 'Provisional Tax Credits for 06/04/2015 to 31/08/2015'. I don't know why these dates are given.

In Part 3 - Payments it does show 'amount to be paid' both Working Tax and Child Tax, then it has stuff about overpayments and potential payments and at the end says amount due to you 0.00.

*Rainbow*Warrior*

blondebubbles wrote: »

So did you tell them your daughter was staying on in education? If so you should have had your updated award by now confirming your CTC award for the remainder of the year. If not then call them to progress chase.

As for WTC, we can only give advice based on what you tell us and the qualifying rules. Based on what you have said you shouldn't have qualified for WTC.

Well to be honest I have never understood these Tax Credits forms. They always have on stuff like 'Amount already repaid', 'amount collected back' 'adjustment to set your record straight' etc and there's never any explanation.

I have informed Tax Credits at every change to our circumstances. I've given them exact income figures from our P60s and bank statements (for the benefits) so if it's wrong I don't know why.

Yes I told them my daughter was staying on in education. I sent them a letter in June with all our figures and this was sent with the Renewal form. When I received the award notice it still showed my husband's full time income from the year before. I rang them up and they said basically it looked like no-one had read my letter. So I gave them all the figures again over the phone and that's how I got this latest form.

I guess I'll have to try phoning them again, but I just wanted to get some advice as I really don't understand all this and to be honest I'm quite upset and worried that the local authority have said we don't qualify for the free meals ( I sent them a copy of the latest Tax Credit notice).

*Rainbow*Warrior*

Thank you. I'll ring them tomorrow