Incorrect Tax Creit Calculator

darrenr1974

Hi all
I hope someone else has experience of this or can explain it to me. We have been recieveing tax credits for about 3 years now and have been getting around £18 a week. We are both working with a joint income of £28500 ish, I do 45 hours & the wife about 16, and have 3 kids of 2, 4 & 6.
I decided to double check these figures against the HMRC's own online calculator and it came back with a figure of £45.00 a week. So, of course I rang them up to query it and was told that both the online calculator and the one they use in the office are giving spurious estimated figures of around 3 times what they should be. So I double checked with entitledto.com and its calculator also said £185.00 ish. Additionally on the direct.gov.uk website they cite this:
Example 1
Mr and Mrs Khan both work full-time. Between them, they earn about £25,000 a year. They have three children. They get about £55 a week in tax credits.
It seems to me the Khans situation is very similar to ours.

So is it the case that I have been underpaid for the last 3 years or more, or are people being massively overpaid still by 3x or more. Where can I get a definitive answer on what I am due?

Any help will be greatly appreciated as I am pulling what is left of my hair out with the Tax credits people, as I am sure many of you are too
Cheers
Darren

Jules

I have always found the entitledto calc more or less spot on. Are you repaying any overpayment at the minute?

I'm no tax credits expert but there may be someone in your local CAB that may be able to help. Take your award notices along and they may be able shed some light for you.

darrenr1974

Thanks for the reply,
I am not paying any overpayments that I am aware of, and I am still waiting for my award notices to arrive. Thanks for the advice on CAB, i may give that a try.

Darren

spanner82

Firstly the example I presume they use childcare (both working fulltime)? Do you use any registered childcare?

Where your earnings last year any higher than this year?

It may be you are just over the limit for more help - on 25k you should receive just over 2k in tax credits not inlcuding any childcare help - 30k this drops to the minimum £500 odd - you fall somewhere inbetween.

But don't be afraid to keep checking.

kerryallc71

i have used both the entitledto.com and the inland revenue ( child tax credits - do you qualify ) calculators both on the end of tax year 6th april 2008 , and both gave me the same tax credit amount i would most likely be due ..

i have used the entitledto.com website for years now and it seems like a pretty good calculator .. almost spot on ..


see you from kerry ..

darrenr1974

Thanks for the replies. We don't use registered childcare, grandparents help us out. But I found out some more from the CTC people that our estimated earnings for last year were a couple of grand higher than than our actual earnings. This would have taken us over the £30,000 mark and so I presume we have only been getting the basic £500. I thought it would work pro-rata rather than having an arbitary cut off point. We were thinking of the wife doing some more hours to earn more money but as we are so close to this threshold we may actually be no better off if she did. Which seems particularly daft.

Will I get a rebate then once I have declared my earnings? A £1500 lump sum would be very useful indeed.

Thanks all

Darren

vicki_b

whenever i enter identical details into both those websites they come out with figures that are about £800 out(award based on the year)

needaspirin

I have calculated that on £28500 for both tax years your TCs would be £48.15 per week. You need a breakdown from HMRC because I think they are wrong.

darrenr1974

Thanks needaspirin, that was what I was reckoning on. Glad others come to the same conclusion as me. I think a stern word with the CTC people will be in order.
Darren