Really confused child tax credits help!!

[catty]

im so confused i am trying to apply for child tax credits at the moment and im pretty confused.

My OH earns £20,000 and i am on maternity leave.

1) it says to take it from last year but last year i earned £15500 which i dont get know as i am on maternity leave and dont know what to write

2) If i am to write what i earn this year do i include what i earned from April until i went on mat leave?

3) Do i include mat leave as income?

If we were just to include OH wage we would be entitled to something but looks lke we wont get anything if we have to include my wage. Iv called 3 times and i just get even more confused, they say the first £100 isnt counted but i get £136 so is the £36 counted..... eeeeeeeekkkkkk i am starting to think i wont even apply incase i owe them money

 

[BellaBoo0512]

When I applied I put last years earnings from our p60s and then when they sorted everything out I rang them and told them this years expected income. Just waiting to hear back from them but my payments should of increased as I'm not returning to work. They didn't tell me anything about knocking off the first £100 off my maternity pay though so I just gave my total maternity pay amount from April - November when my pay stops.

 

[maisie78]

Yep you're pretty much right in your workings out. You will need to include your wages since April up until you went on mat leave. Then you add up your smp disregarding the first £100, so £36 per week up to next April 5th. That is your year's expected income. Unfortunately what the HMRC then do is add another £2500 or so to that figure to allow for any variation in your earnings and avoid you getting an overpayment. My projected income for this year is £11500 due to being on mat leave until Oct but HMRC have calculated it based on around £14000. Hope this helps.

 

[catty]

Thanks for the help, i dont know if we will be entitled to anything then, i wish they didnt add another £2500 as i dont actually receive that money and it means that we are just over the amount by a few hundred

 

[suzib76]

Yep you're pretty much right in your workings out. You will need to include your wages since April up until you went on mat leave. Then you add up your smp disregarding the first £100, so £36 per week up to next April 5th. That is your year's expected income. Unfortunately what the HMRC then do is add another £2500 or so to that figure to allow for any variation in your earnings and avoid you getting an overpayment. My projected income for this year is £11500 due to being on mat leave until Oct but HMRC have calculated it based on around £14000. Hope this helps.

OMG I nev knew that, bit unfair for people who are borderline in certain bands

 

[hulahoop09]

Thats terrible they do that. I know if you earnt approx 2.5k less than what you did they wouldnt make any extra payment the end of the tax year but didnt realised they would add it on to estimated income for this year.

I earnt approx 11k last year but thos year based on smp etc I will only have estimated income of approx 8k so thos would mean a possible £150 difference in what we get pm but if they add 2.5k on anyway then it would drasrically reduce it! i