Chance someone of having child tax credits backdated to babies birth 8 months later

sammyjayneex

So I claim tax credits with my husband based on his wage since we got back together as before we wasn't together and he was living with his girlfriend. He works full time and I'm a stay at home mum. We have 5 children but only had 4 children on the tax credit Claim. My 5th child is 8 months old now but I didn't put him in the claim stupidly because I heard about the new rules that you was not able to claim for further children but I didn't realise that this only applied to babies born after April 2017 as my friend told me she claims for her 5 so I rang tax credits who have now put him in the claim and she's told me that I should write a letter to th tax credit office explaining why I didn't put his name on before and they might backdate all the way to his birth 8 months but do you really see this happening ?.

Darksparkle

They would only backdate one month. You could appeal but it's unlikely they'd accept it as they do not appear to have made any errors themselves.

missapril75

While it's tempting to think someone might be understanding and think it was understandable, presumably the claim process asks for all children involved so there's the opportunity for all to have been included.

On the other hand, the person on the phone seems to be holding out some possibility.

That might, however, be the ignorance of someone in a call centre or someone just trying to be nice.

clairec79

I thought it was a max of three months

Darksparkle

clairec79 wrote: »

I thought it was a max of three months

Not for the last 5 years.

sammyjayneex

missapril75 wrote: »

While it's tempting to think someone might be understanding and think it was understandable, presumably the claim process asks for all children involved so there's the opportunity for all to have been included.

On the other hand, the person on the phone seems to be holding out some possibility.

That might, however, be the ignorance of someone in a call centre or someone just trying to be nice.

I already had a claim on the system for my 4 children but I just didn't add my 5th thinking I wasn't allowed until I was told otherwise then I added the baby to my alread existing claim so there wasn't 'an opportunity for all to be included' as I already had a claim for 4 but because of the news of the new rule I assumed it was immediate affect so didn't put him in. But seems like the rule only applies from April 2017. Yes the person who took the call was probably just being noce

Darksparkle

The person on the phone has to give you the option to appeal, it's not about being nice. Everyone has the right to appeal a tax credit decision they don't agree with.

Aced2016

Did you add the baby on to your child benefit claim ?

sammyjayneex

Aced2016 wrote: »

Did you add the baby on to your child benefit claim ?

Yes I added him to my child benefit claim because here is no restrictions on child benefit as we don't have a large income

Aced2016

Well when sending the letter to tax credits, you could state you had informed child benefit and as they usually share information you'd assumed they had.

You could then say you thought the benefit cut applied to you and that's why your tax credits hadn't increased.

And there has been instances they've back dated payments further than 3 months so it's possible.

sammyjayneex

Aced2016 wrote: »

Well when sending the letter to tax credits, you could state you had informed child benefit and as they usually share information you'd assumed they had.

You could then say you thought the benefit cut applied to you and that's why your tax credits hadn't increased.

And there has been instances they've back dated payments further than 3 months so it's possible.

That sounds like good idea thanks I will give that a try