tax credits gone down by a considerable amount

[BellaBoo0512]

I am so frustrated with tax credits. Last year I was working part time (20 hrs a week) and DS was going to nursery in the afternoons. I was receiving £160 a week in tax credits and his nursery fees were £90 a week. My husband works full time.

In July I changed my working hours to full time and put DS in nursery full time and his fees went up to £160 a week and tax credits went down to £113 a week.

In December I got a new job and my wages went up by £20 a week, phoned tax credits and informed them of the changes any my tax credits went down to £81 a week so it worked out I was worse off by about £15 a week. I phoned tax credits to check if this was right and they said it was but it would balance itself out and I would probably get a refund in the new tax year if I was owed anything.

In the beginning of the new tax year my tax credits went up to £95 a week which is what the online tax calculator said we would get.

Today I have received my payment but it is only £38 and I dont have a clue why! I do know that I cant afford to lose £60 a week!

I have phoned tax credits this morning and was told to wait for a letter which will explain everything. I have just been on an online budget planner and this is now going to mean that I will be having more money going out than I have got coming in!

Hubby received his P60 this week and he has earned slightly more this year compared to last year due to working overtime, I haven't had my P60 yet but I know that I over-estimated to make sure that we don't get overpayed.

I am so fed up of tax credits, they are supposed to be there to help people but I have had endless problems with them since DS was born 3 years ago!

 

[Pink1981]

Are you sure it's not an extra payment?

 

[shellideaks]

Could you register for an account on the website? That way you can look at your payments and see if you can figure out what's going on.

https://www.gov.uk/manage-your-tax-credits

 

[BellaBoo0512]

I've since spoke to them again and it turns out I under estimated hubby's overtime so now we have had an overpayment. They are taking 45 pounds a week for 26 weeks to claim back what we owe. I don't know how this has happened left me in a right mess! I really thought my estimates would of been slightly over what they actually were

 

[smileyfaces]

That's rubbish they are so unfair with the way they work sometimes.

Mine have just gone down by £40 a week and I called to ask why and she literally could not tell me, she said she wasn't sure! So frustrating.

 

[DreamCatcher_]

I had this problem with tax credits and haven't claimes in over a year. I'm still repaying and overpayment at £60 per month, I owed £400odd due to an ex partner (half of a claim) and then another £200odd because I began my teaching probation year.

We now receive nothing and I'll still pay money back until next year sometime. I'm pretty sure I'll overpay the repayment

You can contact the helpline and they can explain it in more detail and you might be able to arrange a repayment yourself to repay the money back at a lower rate x

 

[Elli21]

We had an overpayment 8 years ago and the repayments left us in a bad situation, but we sucked it up for that number of weeks and in the end we got used to it and when our payments went up slightly, we nearly had a party.
But im sure if you rang them theres an option to lower the repayments slightly so you don't find it as hard.

Its always hard with estimating overtime and letting them know.