Area changing to Universal Credit - Existing nil award claim for Child Tax Credits

Lucy5781

Slightly convoluted here, sorry, but basically:

I had my son in September 2016, I then stopped working in June 2017. My DH still working full time.
We claimed for Child Tax Credits but due to me having to use up annual leave during my notice period, our joint income was judged as being about £1500 over the qualifying threshold for a family with one child.

So we are currently in a 'nil award' situation with regards our claim for Child Tax Credits.

Things are very tight but just about manageable for now. However we are now excepting baby no.2. In April 2018.

Arrival of no.2 will bring the qualifying income threshold up by about £20k so updating our claim with second child details once they arrived was all I was expecting to do.

Unfortunately, this week our area goes over to Universal Credit.

I can't seem to establish if our existing claim position will help as I've seen statements saying that new claims for two children or less might not be accepted etc.

On a separate note I know I should be able to claim the lower level of Maternity Allowance once I hit 26wks in mid January 2018 and of course there will be an increase in Child Benefit once no.2 arrives as well.

I'm just worried that, again, we'll end up being denied financial help at the last minute after planning and budgeting accordingly beforehand.

Darksparkle

https://revenuebenefits.org.uk/universal-credit/guidance/stopping-tax-credits/when-will-tax-credits-stop/

My understanding is that as you have an existing claim, it will simply be a change of circumstances and you’ll remain on tax credits.

Icequeen99

As DS says, for now you should remain on tax credits and report the change as you planned to and that should all be ok unless anything in the rules changes before April.

IQ

Lucy5781

Thank you for your input.