Tax Credits

[Kitten]

Right, hubby works full time (37hours) and I'm going back to work for 18.5 hours a week. Between us we'll be earning £34k before tax, and childcare is £80 a week.

I did the online calculator thingy and it basically says we qualify for sod all. But then it got it wrong when we did it before and we currently get £80 a month based on our earning for 08/09.

Does this sound right? Why do we not get ANY help with childcare? How is that fair?

I also did it to see what would happen if I gave up work and it came up with the same results. How on earth does that work?

Anyone got any idea?

Obviously I'll be ringing them next week to have a chat but just wondering if it makes sense or what anyone else in similar situations get?

 

[Kitten-B]

If it helps, working tax credit is made up of basic (£1,920 from April 2010), lone parent/couple element (£1,890 from April 2010), and 30 hr week element (£790 from April 2010), plus childcare costs (80% costs up to a max of £175 per week for one child).

This is then reduced for 39p for every £1 you earn over £6,420.

Therefore you should get in 2010/11 - £1,920 + £1,890 + £790 + (£80 x 80% x 52) – ((£34,000 - £6,420) x 39%) = nil.

Child tax credit is made up of family (£545), baby (£545 if you have a child under 1), and per child (£2,300). It is reduced the same way as WTC.

Therefore, assuming your LO is under 1 you would get £545 + £545 + £2,300 – ((£34,000 - £6,420) x 39%) = nil. However there is a minimum CTC for families with income under £50,000 of £545. Therefore you should get that.

So you should still get £545 in total (ie: £45 a month). I would maybe write to them instead of ringing as you may get a clearer answer.

Do you use childcare vouchers? You could save over £1k a year using them to pay for your childcare so at least that is some help?

 

[suzib76]

last time i applied for help with childcare we got sod all and were bringing in a total of about 24000 at the time

 

[Kitten-B]

Suzib - if your childcare costs were over about £55 a week you should have got some help. For example if they were £100 you should have got about £35 a week. But if you were using childcare vouchers I don't think they interact very well? You should maybe try again as I don't understand why you wouldn't?

 

[suzib76]

thanks hun our circumstances are way different now but at the time Jack was in full time nursery and it was 120 a week, we never got any help with cost
not going down that route this time i am gonna work pt lol