Entitled? Child Tax Credits / Working Tax Credits

[Shifter]

i have recently gone on maternity leave and not planning on going back to work coz i have no one to take care of lil one. OH is in the army and earns about 30grand a year. what will i be entitled to???

Hi Caroline,

depending on where you work, how many hours you work(ed) and whether your company has a better than statutory maternity package, you may be entitled to working tax credits (not sure how they work it out if you partner is in the forces and is posted away from home), maternity pay/allowance, child benefit and child tax credit. Everyone (pretty much) gets the last two.

Your best bet is to contact your local job centre plus for application forms and just apply for everything, the worst that can happen is they say no for some things.

Have you spoken to your employer about maternity pay? What are they paying you? Even if you aren't going back you are still entitled to statutory maternity pay as long as you've worked there for long enough (a week before start of pregnancy).

 

[caroline_uk]

the pay im getting from my employer is 12 weeks full pay which is my contracted hours at my hourly wage.
im having 6 weeks before baby arrives and 6 weeks after...also getting 50 hours of annual leave. the rest will be the flat rate of maternity pay for the following 6 months.
im taking an additional 3 months unpaid leave before deciding wether or not i will go back to work but i prob wont.
i will just fill in all the forms and see what they say.
so its only WTC, CTC and child benefit?? i
m also applying for the sure start grant..its worth a try lol

 

[caroline_uk]

oh one other thing.....do i have to pay back maternity pay to the government if i dont go back to work??? this is what my employer has said but im sure thats not right!!

 

[Shifter]

No, I'm sure that's not the case. I think if you tell them you are returning then you have a legal obligation to do so, but you don't have to tell them anything for certain, you are perfectly entitled to keep your intentions to yourself.

 

[Brioney+Bump]

Hi im wondering if any one could give me any advice re the £500 sure start grant.
Both me and the babys dad are working full time ive been on the hmrc website and we wont qualify for the sure start grant we'l miss out by about £150,however once the babys born i wont be living with the babys father il be moving back home with parents for about 4 months. does this mean i will then qualify for the surestart grant on my earnings alone.
im getting so confused

 

[Helabela]

can anyone help?

Im going back to work full time when LO is 8 months. Hubby is self emloyed, are we able to claim anything??

 

[Lotti1978]

Its all wrong isn't it!
You do feel like your earnings mainly go on childcare....well mine would and then there is the mortgage etc to pay....
Either kick hubby out or not go back to work???!!!!!!!! LOL

 

[Tamashii]

I only just found out recently we are entitled to CTC although we were told we wouldn't be as if you don't get WTC you don't get CTC!!! Wrong!!!! We have been missing out on CTC all this time.

Anyway, I am worried because we have also been told that since my other half pays CSA money to his ex he has been told they basically take 20% of OUR CTC as well since it is counted towards his income even though it is for MY child. His ex is already getting 20% plus of his wages and now they will be getting 20% of our child tax credits??? Is this right? If so, there is honestly no point at all in us claiming for CTC really.

Thanks for any advice...

 

[littleblonde]

Hi im wondering if any one could give me any advice re the £500 sure start grant.
Both me and the babys dad are working full time ive been on the hmrc website and we wont qualify for the sure start grant we'l miss out by about £150,however once the babys born i wont be living with the babys father il be moving back home with parents for about 4 months. does this mean i will then qualify for the surestart grant on my earnings alone.
im getting so confused

its worth a try and you should apply. Im not sure how it was work as your still together. however apply anyway once you get tax credits through and see what they say. Worse they can say is no

 

[littleblonde]

can anyone help?

Im going back to work full time when LO is 8 months. Hubby is self emloyed, are we able to claim anything??

If your using child care you may get a bit of wtc to help cover it. But it depends on your joint income. The same with tax credits. all depends on your income . theres a site called entitledto.com. type your info and that should give you rough idea

 

[littleblonde]

I only just found out recently we are entitled to CTC although we were told we wouldn't be as if you don't get WTC you don't get CTC!!! Wrong!!!! We have been missing out on CTC all this time.

Anyway, I am worried because we have also been told that since my other half pays CSA money to his ex he has been told they basically take 20% of OUR CTC as well since it is counted towards his income even though it is for MY child. His ex is already getting 20% plus of his wages and now they will be getting 20% of our child tax credits??? Is this right? If so, there is honestly no point at all in us claiming for CTC really.

Thanks for any advice...

go to the website www.entitledto.com this is an online calculator. type your info and see what they say. i dont no about csa. but it seems very unfair if they do as this is money for your child

 

[emsiee]

Anyone know about WTC and self employment? I know you gotta work 16 hrs per week to get it, but if your just starting up and really dont know if you`ll get enough work to warrant 16 hours, how do they work it out?

 

[kiraelliott]

Probably been asked a hundred times but how long does it take for updated info to process? (Just quit my job to look after sprog and we're 11k less now)

xxx

 

[xxembobxx]

Anyone know about WTC and self employment? I know you gotta work 16 hrs per week to get it, but if your just starting up and really dont know if you`ll get enough work to warrant 16 hours, how do they work it out?

I worked self-employed and just estimated my income as a weekly amount and they were happy with that. As long as you can confirm you will do a minimum of 16 hours there shouldn't be a problem. I based mine on earning around £7 per hour for 16 hours and I knew that would be over-estimating my annual income which is better that under-estimating!

I did hear they were upping the minimum hours to 24 a week, not sure if that has been phased in yet. Also there has been talk of HMRC assuming you will get paid minimum wage for each hour whether or not you actually do (a lot of self-employed don't earn this particularly in the start-up stage) but again I don't think this has come in yet.

 

[peanut08]

Hi all, i intend on going back to work in feb, i have found a child minder but she is very sought after and a place has just become available for the 3 days i need i want to start my son with the child minder for 1.5 days per week from november to get him used to her and leaving me she will use this to retain his place for the 3 days to gaurente his 3 days in feb, can i claim childcare from taxcredits from november even though i dont return to work untill feb?

Thanks in advance

 

[Mum2Ty2Be]

Just looking for some advice, as i'm sure this cant be right. Me and my partner have just had a baby so we sent our claim form off for working and child tax credits. My partner works 35 hours a week, his total earnings from april 2010-april2011 were only 9,000. I am currently not working, i was dismissed when i was 12 weeks pregnant, however my total earnings were 15,000 back then, but at the moment i get nothing at all obviously. We've got the letter back this morning saying were not eligable for working taxcredits and only £53 a month child tax credits? surely this cant be right? yes fair enough i was on a good wage then but i earn nothing now! we are never going to be able to survive on my partners wage alone with a newborn baby, thanks in advance.

 

[peanut08]

Its based on prevoius years earnings so you wont get much this year but you should benefit more next year as you have earned less iykwim

 

[jamiejams]

Can sum1 help me I'm bin underpaid they had down my partner would earn 20k last year but due 2 bin laid off he only earnt 8,900 n I've just renewed so I'm I owed money n how much thanks

 

[leelee1574]

I feel for you guys. It's so scary going to one income.

It's not much better here in NZ. Admittedly (I don't know how the system overseas works) here we do get 14 weeks paid parental leave. But after that we might (and that's a bit might) get $50 a week, if you're really lucky.

It is more than freaking me out about how we are going to manage on just one income. It's pretty crappy really, you pay taxes all your life and now you get nothing. A kick in the teeth.

 

[ronnie1234]

I renewed my tax credits over the phone (no paperwork received back yet.
Since my renewal phone call, I have received a one off payment of £55. So I thought my future payments would be about the same as they are now, but todays payment gone in & it’s £25 per week less than it was before!

I have done online calculator & it shouldn’t be this much less than what I was receiving it should be about £4 a week less according to online calculator