Tax credits stopping and over-payment wanted back PLEASE HELP

[tinkerbelle93]

Not sure what to do at the minute about this. Basically throughout last year my partner had a lot of over-time opportunity at work, he worked A LOT of hours so we could save up for our house.

He earned £25,000 before tax. I did the odd bit of part-time work after my maternity leave finished and made around £1000. However, I have since left work.

Anyway, going by what we earned last year tax credits say we are now entitled to nothing and say they have overpaid us by £850 pounds. They want us to pay back something like £280, and say the future money will just be taken out of any future tax credits we may be entitled to (?)

I'm just upset because my OH no longer has that over-time opportunity so will be earning a lot less this year, his pay slips have decreased a lot the past few months, so now we're going to also be getting no tax credits so it's like a huge drop of income . I also don't know where we're going to find the money to pay them back. So stressed right now. Is there anything we can do?

 

[aimee-lou]

Do you know what your OH's income is going to be now for this year? If so, put them on your current claim, see what that comes back at, and go from there. My hubby has taken some summer work, and while it's supposed to be going from last year's taxes they're using his current income as that's more accurate. What they should then be able to do is see if you can re-pay via this year's tax credit award and then whatever is left you'll get iykwim.

I personally hate the tax credit system - it's so complicated if you don't get a straight salary and I'm forever scared of being over-paid so I usually overestimate my income each year to allow for this, then the renewal pack will show up where I've been underpaid if at all. It's so blooming backwards!

 

[tinkerbelle93]

Do you know what your OH's income is going to be now for this year? If so, put them on your current claim, see what that comes back at, and go from there. My hubby has taken some summer work, and while it's supposed to be going from last year's taxes they're using his current income as that's more accurate. What they should then be able to do is see if you can re-pay via this year's tax credit award and then whatever is left you'll get iykwim.

I personally hate the tax credit system - it's so complicated if you don't get a straight salary and I'm forever scared of being over-paid so I usually overestimate my income each year to allow for this, then the renewal pack will show up where I've been underpaid if at all. It's so blooming backwards!

Thank you, I'm going to ring tomorrow and see if they'll take into account what his income will probably be. I agree it's so complicated and stressful, I also feel we were better off after we'd just had LO and my OH was on a lower paid job with less hours but we seemed to get loads of tax credits. It just feels like him having a better paid job makes no difference at all because credits just go down or dissapear. They also won't help me with childcare at all if I want to work and, since I only really qualify for minimum wage jobs, that wouldn't make any money either. Just feel trapped with no way of bettering our income xx

 

[aimee-lou]

Any joy?

 

[Rachel_C]

They should definitely let you tell them if your predicted income is different to last year and base your current claim on that. IIRC on all the forms asking you about last year, they do say to let them know if you think you will be earning more or less.

Even if you don't qualify for anything, we were overpaid something (I can't remember what it was now, pretty sure it was child tax credit) and weren't getting any the next year they let me pay it back over a whole year with no upfront larger payment. It took a while to pay off but there was no interest paid on it so it made sense to pay in instalments.

 

[nugget80]

Our income dropped by 4900 Last year but as it was less than 5000 difference they continued to pay us nothing and somehow i still ended up with a 320 overpayment...! Sadly the way they work it out makes little sense. This year on slightly higher income we get over 3 times more than last year... Makes no sense!