[Seachest]

Hi ladies

I guess this post is quite appropriate given the new tax year and the bad news for families!

I was just wondering if any of you have made enquiries into the child tax credit? I called the helpline number last week and spoke to a very unhelpful (very rude in fact) young man who also said that he would not form sent to me before my twins arrive in 6/7 weeks. I was just trying to be organised!!!  .

Anyway, he did however do some quick calculations based on the fact that both myself and my husband are full-time mature students doing professional qualifications so have a joint income of just £10k from part time work. He said that we would get approx £16 per week which seems very low. I have just at the Direct Gov website again today to see what new info is on there and it says that for an income of around £10k we would get £5660 per annum for the two babies (this is similar to what was on there a few weeks ago). I know this is minus the baby element as per the news today, but I have to say this is fantastic news for us.  However I cannot help but be concerned about the calculation the man did on the phone, am I missing something!!!

I was therefore wondering if anyone else has applied for this and has received way less than the website suggests?

Thanks
Seachest

 

[PompeyD]

I'd say he's got it wrong based on our salaries and what we get, unless the 2011/12 cuts are far more than I thought. Might be worth calling again to speak to someone else, they sent the forms out to me no problem as like you wanted to be as organised as possible before the twins arrived. I know it's the start of a tax year but no excuse for being rude 

 

[beachbaby]

Hi, I'm not sure but i believe you have to do a certain number of hours per week to qualify (16 i think), so some people fall through the gap and get no help. I remember my sister struggled for years as she did not quite fit the criteria. I could be wrong though.
Good luck.

 

[Seachest]

Thanks for the replies.

As I understand it the 16 hours per week work is for Working Tax Credit (which I know we are not entitled to), not Child Tax Credit......however this is still calculated in bandings based on income. It's all so confusing but hopefully it will become a bit clearer when I apply!!

I'm going to call again and hopefully speak to someone who can help this time and send out the form so I can get a head start!! So much yet to do and so little time!!! If I find out anything interesting I'll post on here!

Seachest
x

 

[♡ C ♡]

They aren't very helpful I find when I try ring them for info before anything actually happens I get told that need to have happened ie have baby, started new job etc before they can give any info over the phone, but some others have found them helpful luck of the draw I think.  Both me and Dh are on low incomes since he got made redundent and had to take a part time job and we do get working tax so you may qualify if you work over the 16hrs each, also if you would be looking for help with the cost of child care in the future you would need to work over 16 hrs each.  I'm not totally sure what changes did come in today apart from loosing the baby element and them cutting down the child care help from 80% to 70% so I could be wrong