Tax Credits Con?

FNUSNU

We recently applied for the 30 free hours childcare. We received a letter stating that we were successful and they had also set up our tax-free account. My wife called them and was told they do this for everyone. The issue is we hadn't asked for this and now they have stopped our tax credits as a result. This must be happening to everyone else too. We were then told that as there are no new applications we have to apply for Universal Credit instead, therein lies the clue as to why this happened in my humble opinion. This will take a while, may reduce what we get or even be rejected. We've been told it's possible to appeal however this can take around 75 days. Has anyone else experienced this issue or something similar? Any advice? I'm guessing the government wants us all on UC as soon as possible.

TIA

antrobus

FNUSNU wrote: »

We recently applied for the 30 free hours childcare. We received a letter stating that we were successful and they had also set up our tax-free account. My wife called them and was told they do this for everyone. The issue is we hadn't asked for this and now they have stopped our tax credits as a result. This must be happening to everyone else too. We were then told that as there are no new applications we have to apply for Universal Credit instead, therein lies the clue as to why this happened in my humble opinion. This will take a while, may reduce what we get or even be rejected. We've been told it's possible to appeal however this can take around 75 days. Has anyone else experienced this issue or something similar? Any advice? I'm guessing the government wants us all on UC as soon as possible.

TIA

30 hours free childcare is here;
https://www.gov.uk/30-hours-free-childcare

You need an account to get it, it seems, If that's the way it works, that's the way it works.

Step 2 of the process clearly states "Getting 30 hours free childcare might affect how much you get in tax credits", and invites you to "Check if you’ll be better off". Did you not do this?

In any event losing tax credits would be the result of your application, rather than the existence of any account.

Icequeen99

FNUSNU wrote: »

We recently applied for the 30 free hours childcare. We received a letter stating that we were successful and they had also set up our tax-free account. My wife called them and was told they do this for everyone. The issue is we hadn't asked for this and now they have stopped our tax credits as a result. This must be happening to everyone else too. We were then told that as there are no new applications we have to apply for Universal Credit instead, therein lies the clue as to why this happened in my humble opinion. This will take a while, may reduce what we get or even be rejected. We've been told it's possible to appeal however this can take around 75 days. Has anyone else experienced this issue or something similar? Any advice? I'm guessing the government wants us all on UC as soon as possible.

TIA

The application process for 30 hours is joined with Tax-Free Childcare. Somewhere along the way, you must have applied for both rather than just the 30 hours. It is the TFC that automatically stops the tax credits, not the 30 hours.

My understanding is that there are warnings as you go through the application.

You need to speak to a welfare rights specialist, there are some complicated legal arguments that you might be able to pursue with regards to reclaiming tax credits but that will probably involve going to Tribunal and it is risky as you could miss out on UC in the meantime.

Other than that your only route is to complain, but it depends on what the current wording is and whether it makes it clear.

IQ