Tax credit notice driving me mad!!!

stressedoutmum

I would be very careful with the amount they have told you. They told me the same and each time they gave me extra money I phoned to question it and was told ' no you are entitled to it'. Then I received a notice telling me I was overpaid by £700 could they have it by return. When I said I could not afford it they stopped my child tax credit (no longer qualify for WTC) completely until its paid off. I have an appeal in but thats been going 10 months now and still now result. I have thoroughly p***ed off they have taken this back without the outcome of the Appeal being known. They knew of my income at every stage it changed so DONT TRUST THEM! :eek:

Spendless

CIS wrote:

Why do IR publicise £545 both in their literature and in the statutory instruments if the actual calculation uses £547.50 ?

The entitled to website is always out when I compare it to my real cirumstances using a quick manual calc and the award notice. It was out by quite a bit, some of the other tax credit calcs Ive used are a good bit more accurate.

I think the main point with the calculators is that they are meant to be ballpark figures (to within about £10-£15p/m), to give an idea of entitlement but I found entitledto was way outside that ballpark.

I think it was posted on this board that it's something to do with some years being a leap year and therefore having an extra day (don't think I've explained that very well).

I always say £545 p.a when telling people about the family element cos I just find it easier - and maybe the extra £2.50 is a nice surprise -lol

re- the entitled to website and the IR one, one works out from the date till the end of financial year and one for the whole of the tax year.

irs101

Why do IR publicise £545 both in their literature and in the statutory instruments if the actual calculation uses £547.50 ?

OK, you asked for it.....prepare for a lesson in tax credit trivia

Statutory amounts are set for each element of tax credits. To work out your award you need to work out the daily rate for each element individually. So you divide the element by the number of days in the year and round it up to the nearest penny. Then, to get the annual value, you multiply back up by the number of days in the year.

So for the family element of £545, the daily rate is £1.50, multipled by 365 equals £547.50. But in a leap year, the daily rate is £1.49, so the annual amount is £545.34.

And so on for each element. This is the main reason why most calculators are not correct, and the problem is the more elements someone is entitled to, the more inaccurate a "ballpark" calculation is.

When HMRC quote example award amounts they use a convention of rounding down the amount to the nearest £5, because:
a) you don't have to worry people with all this detailed stuff
b) people don't get confused with amounts changing in leap years
c) it made the tables look simpler and neater.
d) they found that if they used precise figures, journalists picked up on the difference as you have, and used it as "evidence" that HMRC didn't know how to calculate TCs!

Bet you're glad you asked

I've no idea why Entitledto would be out, unless the site has crashed. All I can say is that it has been extensively tested, even against spreadsheet models known to be correct and the text they use has been checked by experts too. No other calculator that I am aware of has been. I probably did around 100 different calculations on the 03-04 and 04-05 versions of Entitledto, and it was never wrong. Are you sure you are putting in the right info? Sometimes it went wrong if you used the back button on IE.

irs

irs101

Pam17 wrote:

In your case one of you has moved off benefits into work and your income has increased so I would have thought that it was your responsibility to inform the tax credit office of the change in circumstances which will affect your entitlement. I would assume this would include the date your husbands benefit claim ceased and the date he started his job. I believe they also require the name, address and tax reference of the new employer.

I think Kelle has told HMRC about their change in circumstance and that is the silliness of her situation. She must have told HMRC that her husband had started work, otherwise they wouldn't be eligible for WTC, but it seems that HMRC didn't ask for any income information. Now while they can't insist on knowing the increased income at this stage, you'd have thought the operators would be trying to encourage people to keep income details up to date and explaining the risks of not doing so.

irs

Lyndsay_21

i've just done our tax credits on entitledto but it came out with a much higher amount than were gettin. our tax credits has gone down from last year by at least £100 a month which is really making money tight for us i think the problem we had was OH was unemplyed until july last year and then when he got a job his earnings where only for half a year so where £10,100 (plus he had £1000 bonus included in that amount). his actual wages where £1000 before tax a month. So now this year he'll still only earn 12,660 a year (pay rise of £660) yet our tax credits have gone down considerably becaue they're assuming he's had a massive leap in his wages.

kellemeek

I have informed tax credits, i rang up to tell them that my partner started a job, i keep them informed with everything. They asked for his income details and where he worked. I have just looked through the tax credits notice and i now think i know what is wrong, according to the letter i am still recieving jobseekers??? LIKE HOW !! i told them we where not claiming it and my partner has started a job! how can you get full working tax and claim jobseekers too??

Some silly person has not actually put down that we have stopped recieving jobseekers allowance!!

So now im gonna have to phone them to let them know, because i really dont think the working tax credit is correct, i know we are entitled to nearly full child tax credit and once again for when my new baby comes.But no working tax credit.

Anyway thank you for all your help!

Kelle