Benefit Problem

Lip_Stick

Hi all, thanks for looking.

Basically I've been off work for almost a year on Maternity Leave. After I discussed my leave with Working Tax Credits I planned to live off WTC and Child Benefit after my Maternity pay stopped. This can't be the case, as when I stopped being paid Maternity pay, I checked if there were other benefits I might be able to get and it became apparent that as I wasn't getting paid by my employer, my WTC had to stop. :rolleyes:

For the last month and half I've had to claim income support. When I start work at the beginning of May, I'll be working a month in hand and all I'm going to have coming in, before my Working Tax Credits kicks in (a few weeks after starting work), is Child Tax Credit, and Child Benefit so I'll be living on about £45 less than what someone on Income Support gets.

I had a brief convo with someone from IS and she suggested a crisis loan, but I'm really annoyed that if I wasn't fed duff information when organising my maternity leave by both WTC & IS, I wouldn't be in this position and don't feel this is fair really.

Does anyone know of any thing I can do about this? Someone said there used to be a buffer zone with IS for instances where you work a month in hand, but wasn't sure if that existed now.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks x

DaisyFlower

WTC can only be claimed whilst on OML, if you choose to take AML it stops - the tax credits website has a section re claiming whilst on maternity. You will still get any CTC element though.

Perhaps the babies father can help you out until you are sorted.

Lip_Stick

I sorted out the Tax Credits over the phone, as I'd previously claimed a few years ago, so they still had me on their records. The only form I got with my new claim was the T602, which has no mention of maternity leave, and as I'd discussed it with someone over the phone, on a couple of occasions I'd had no reason to think otherwise. As my child was born May 07, I could claim for 39 weeks it seems.

After I'd seen IS and was told my WTC had to stop I went home and rang WTC asking them again, as my maternity had stopped getting paid, what would happen. The woman told me that nothing would happen and I could still claim WTC. It was only when I told her what the woman at IS said, that she went away, came back, and told me that IS was correct, so it seems WTC's employees aren't that clued up with it!

As for the child's dad... the least said about him the better!

[Deleted User]

Most of the WTC employees should be clued up on it but obviously not all.

However, if you are not classed as working - not being paid - you cannot expect to receive WTC.

Have you notified TCO that you are receiving IS? If you have informed them you can call up a week in advance to notify them you are returning to work and hopefully within the week your WTC should be sorted. It is hoped that this starts roughly when the IS stops so that you are not losing out.

Lip_Stick

I thought that since I was still classed as being employed, and that my income was based over the year and hadn't changed, I'd still get WTC. I did have lengthy discussions with the TCO and IS on numerous occasions when I was organising my maternity leave, as I wanted to find out if I'd be better off on income support or not. Not once did anyone say to me that after 39 weeks my tax credits would stop. IS even stated that any WTC would come out of my income support. WTC also said, that only if I claimed IS after I'd stopped being paid from work, then WTC would stop.

Anyway, thanks for the info about phoning TCO a week in advance. I'll make sure I do that!