# Odd tax credit payment - has anyone else had this?



## Noodles

We got a letter through that said we would be receiving odd payments in order to bring the payments up to date ready for the end of the tax year but I'm confused with regards my payments.

We usually get £620 every 4 weeks which almost pays for my sons nursery costs. It is due to go into the bank on Monday. I've just checked my bank account and they have paid us £314 on Thursday and I don't know if that is instead off the £620 (meaning they have overpaid us and they are underpaying us this month to set it right) or if that is as well as Monday's payment (as they have underpaid us and this is the money that they owe us). Obviously I can't phone them now as they are closed and by Monday I'll know for sure either way. 

Has anyone got a clue what is going on?


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## flower01

i got a letter saying the payments may vary too. Can i ask, do you work? how come you get so much?! 
they had me down as working 40 hrs a week and i told them i only work 17 but they still havent said if they owe me money or not! i only get £36 a month now since Willow turned 1 and even then i only got £84!!

x


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## Blah11

Yes, i got a letter too and it saod you'd get an extra payment so I assume you'll get one on Monday too.

I've not had any extra payments yet.


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## Noodles

flower01 said:


> i got a letter saying the payments may vary too. Can i ask, do you work? how come you get so much?!
> they had me down as working 40 hrs a week and i told them i only work 17 but they still havent said if they owe me money or not! i only get £36 a month now since Willow turned 1 and even then i only got £84!!
> 
> x

Both my husband and I work full time but we don't earn a lot (about £30,000 between us) we get £620 ish normally. This is child tax credit not working tax credit as you only get if your joint income is less than £16,000.

If I didn't get the tax credit then I couldn't have gone back to work. Our nursery costs about £740 a month so even after working full time I have to pay £120 out of my £800 wages to have him in nursery and that's before any travel costs to get me to work (£125). They wouldn't let me return part time so it's barely worth me being there.


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## Laura2919

I got a letter saying I might get another payment between now and April.


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## madcam

we had an extra payment go in friday and had the letter today saying we wre getting extra payement


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## Chocciebutton

I only get half that amount and neither my husband or I are working at the moment as he is recovering from cancer...and we have 2 children??The tax credits recently checked and said we were getting right amount?


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## Laura2919

Chocciebutton said:


> I only get half that amount and neither my husband or I are working at the moment as he is recovering from cancer...and we have 2 children??The tax credits recently checked and said we were getting right amount?

If you dont work then you wouldnt get working tax credits or the childcare element which is why Noodles is more than what you get. You would only qualify for Child Tax Credits as you would get another benefit.


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## flower01

so if u work u get extra money?! i hate tax credits, im tempted to tell them to stick it cos its so confusing and they are so unhelpful on the phone and im constantly paranoid il get a letter saying i should pay them something!!

grrrr


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## rosie272

I got the letter yesterday, not really gonna worry about it as it all evens out in the end :flower:


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## Kunama

I also recieved this letter. My understanding is that you will get a one off payment into your account, then the rest of your monthly payments will be slightly reduced to allow for it. So at the end of the month/ year, the overall amount you have recieved will be the same, but it has been split up diffrently for one month only. I think it is to do with the ending of the baby element of tax credits.


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## mama2b

flower01 said:


> so if u work u get extra money?! i hate tax credits, im tempted to tell them to stick it cos its so confusing and they are so unhelpful on the phone and im constantly paranoid il get a letter saying i should pay them something!!
> 
> grrrr

Don't forget that the money she receives is also towards childcare costs, up to 80% is paid for depending on circumstances.

I also got the letter but I was under the same impression as kunama.


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## Chocciebutton

Laura 2919......I just realised that after I posted lol


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## Noodles

Basically if you return to work they give you money to help towards the cost of the childcare. We don't actually see any of the money as it goes towards paying for nursery, but even with it being as much as it is, it still doesn't cover the amount of money that nursery costs. We still have to pay £120 a month out of my wages towards it.


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## Laura2919

I have to pay a nice sum too. Its 70% paid now or will be in April, I am not sure. 

If you work more than 16 hours a week then you qualify for working tax credit.


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## flower01

i hope i havent come across the wrong way! your entitled to it especially working full time! i was just confused thats all!
I always get spoken to like an idiot when i ring them as i simply dont understand half of it! lol

now child benefit, thats easy to understand! horray! :)

:hugs:
xx


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## Laura2919

I find the majority of them rude and unhelpful. But what do you expect? Lol. I cant stand phoning them. I got my letter but it said I may get a payment so wont hold my breath.


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## Noodles

I wasn't offended at all. You asked a simple enough question. I was on the phone for over an hour trying to sort it out when I went back to work and until they sent me a breakdown I still had no clue what I was getting. I'm sure they make it confusing on purpose to stop people from claiming.


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## Blah11

Yeah, I get just over £500 for tax credits but pay £550 for nursery fees so really, those who work and whose LO goes to nursery don't see any of the extra money whatsoever.


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## Laura2919

My nursery is nearly £1600 a month and thats part time for the twins!


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## Linzi

Pffft we get £200 a month ish & our nursery fees are near on £800 a month. cannot work it out.

We got the letter too but no idea what it meant really, just figured it would all even out in the end :rofl: xxx


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## Blah11

Laura2919 said:


> My nursery is nearly £1600 a month and thats part time for the twins!

ouch! Amelie only goes 4 days a week 8.30 til 2.30 :shock:


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## jakey1

Laura2919 said:


> My nursery is nearly £1600 a month and thats part time for the twins!


I hope you don't mind me asking, but what percentage do tax credits contribute to your childcare costs? I ended up quitting my job because I couldn't get any sense out of the tax credits people as to how much of a contribution they would make and it seemed to me at the time that it wasn't worth my while working full time (our costs would have also been about £1600 for the twins). We have a pretty good situation now. OH works Mon-Fri while I look after the kids and then I work part-time at weekends while he takes care of them so we don't have to pay any childcare costs this way. I get about £200 per month child tax credits :flower: xx


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## purplerat

I had this same letter and normally get about £480 but they gave me two other payments on 2 days on top of it. So im pretty sure you will get your standard payment too.
x


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## ellismum

The letter I got said "may" so I will or won't. Mines all changing anyway as my hours and pay have changed so I'll see what happens, they have the correct figures.


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## ellismum

We pay our CM £100 a week and get £88 in tax credits based on our new salaries and hours.


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## katix333

is this working tax credit only or both? i haven't received a letter? x


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## Mum2b_Claire

Linzi said:


> Pffft *we get £200 a month ish & our nursery fees are near on £800 a month. cannot work it out.*
> 
> We got the letter too but no idea what it meant really, just figured it would all even out in the end :rofl: xxx

Pretty much same here. :wacko:


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## wishingonastar

yep both me and my OH work full time and pay £850 a month nursery and get £84 a month in CTC :wacko: when this new baby arrives my salary will equal the cost of nursery so i've applied to go back part-time as i don't want to quit altogether but i'll be damned if i'm working for free, paying for someone else to care for my children and missing out on their childhoods :grr:

CTC are the most confusing ridiculous system ever IMO!!!!!!!! :wacko:


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## rosie272

Well, I got my random payment today - £5.78!!
I'm off on a shopping spree!:haha:


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## isil

I got a nice payment of £148 today! :) I'm really hoping I get my standard payment too though... mine goes in on sunday at 1pm, which apparently, is odd!


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## Blah11

yeh i got £7 :rofl:


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## ellismum

Don't spend it all at once Blah!!

No money here despite the letter. Kinda happy about that as it would muck my budgeting up!


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## angelmummy

very confused :-(( me and my oh both work over 16 hours each and have 2 children and pay nursery costs but we only get 240 per month. does that sound right.

i got letter but no extra payment yet!!


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## Blah11

^ depends how much your nursery costs.


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## Laura2919

I got a letter but no money yet. Said up until april though. I doubt I will get anything from them.


EDIT: Just checked my bank and my tax credits have gone up by £3?


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## Mrs Dot

flower01 said:


> i got a letter saying the payments may vary too. Can i ask, do you work? how come you get so much?!
> they had me down as working 40 hrs a week and i told them i only work 17 but they still havent said if they owe me money or not! i only get £36 a month now since Willow turned 1 and even then i only got £84!!
> 
> x

we're similar to you - we used to get about £60 a month and this has gone down to £35. this is until next month when I presume they'll re assess at the start of the new tax year and then let us know?


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## rosie272

One of my colleagues got £398 today!!!!
She's not spending it as she's sure it can't be right... Beats my fiver anyway :haha:


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## Mrs Dot

Blah11 said:


> Yeah, I get just over £500 for tax credits but pay £550 for nursery fees so really, those who work and whose LO goes to nursery don't see any of the extra money whatsoever.

Not sure if we should recieve anything towards his nursery fees? Me and dh both work over 35 hours a week - me 4 days, dh 5 days. H is in nursery 3.5 days a week and we pay £110 a week nursery fees.

Does anyone know if we are entitled to more tax credits? Do i need to ring them to tell them? we applied before he went to nursery and I've not told them that he started nursery in September last year so we might get the childcare element??? Boo if we've been missing out and I didn't know


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## Blah11

You might :) Phone up and ask!


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## Laura2919

Definitely call them! You have to have the ofsted reg number for your nursery.


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## ClaireLouise

Hi girls!

I asked the woman in my office and she explained it to me. 

She told me that the letter is referring to an extra payment of Child Benefit (either the £20/£10/£7 per week etc, depending on how may kiddies you have) this is the payment everyone receives until their child is no longer in full time education.

Now i get my *Child Tax Credit *paid every 4 weeks, and because there is 52 weeks in the year, and some months have 5 weeks in them, you will get an "extra" payment. This is what you are entitled to and the letter is not regarding this. I get my extra payment in October whereas my friend gets hers in May. She told me how to work it out and when shes in tmoz i will explain! :)

So, I got an extra _*Child Benefit*_ payment of £9.63 (ish) in January - i usually get it every Monday and i got an extra one on a Wednesday too. She told me this is what the letter is about. 

I think this is right - my friend used to work at the HMRC. Im sorry if im wrong, but i dont understand it and she told me all this haha.


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