Hi ladies,

My lo is 5 weeks old now and i'm looking at applying for our tax credits. When i rang up to order an application the bloke said we'd be entitled to ??10 a week?! We're a low income family, plus with me on smp until next Feb i thought/hoped we might get abit more? Is it really that crap? I thought this gov't was looking to support low income families who work!

What are the circumstances that determine tax credits?
xx

Hi hun

We're fairly low income too and it's about a tenner a week. You can calculate it online here

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/payments-entitlement/entitlement/question-how-much.htm

Hth XXX

Yep we are both working but I'm part time so overall low income and we hardly get anything and we get absolutely no working tax credit! Sucks!!! xxx

yep, we have 2 children and both work and get ??10 a week but its free money so not complaining

From what I've gathered from playing about with the online calculator you have to have a joint income of less than about 18K to get anything more than ??10 a week. It's crap isn't it, this is one thing that's annoyed me recently...we've worked hard and full time all our lives and then when we need some help it's ??10 a week, better than nothing yes but there are certain folk out there that dont give anything to society and get loads of money thrown at them!

Did you mention your income, as in maten=rnity pay? I don't know if you are aware, as my friend wasn't, but only ??100.00 a month of M.P is taxed, so you only need to declare your earnings as 100.00 for each month you are off. I knew this but my friend didn't, so she told them how much she earnt in the year (and her husband), and it was a lot more than it should have ben because she was declaring all of her money. Hope this makes sence and helps. x

That is wrong information scrummymummy10. For maternity leave and paternity leave you substract 100 pound for every week you get it from your total income. This means that if you are on mat leave for 39 weeks you substract 3900 from your earnings before you declare it.

This years tax credits are on last years income so your income is to high to get anything more than 10 pound a week now. However, after you have filled in your application and it is approved give the tax credits a ring. You can give an estimated income for this year, than your income is lower and your tax credtis might get higher for this year. Just be carefull though, don't underestimate your income otherwise you are overpaid at the end and have to pay it back. So try to be as accurate as you can be when calculating your income for this year. And remember you can substrat 100 pound a week for every week you are on mat leave.

If you do not ring to give an estimate you will get an underpayment, which will be paid to you when you renew your claim next year. Than they find out you earned less than they thought you earned, so they make up the difference in the amount that should be paid and is paid.

Hi - the prob is it goes off your last tax years earnings - NOT this one. So you ahve to apply using what you were on before and then when you have all your info through then ring up and let them know. You are allowed a certain amount of SMP 'free' (it doesn't count towrds income for tax credits) - we get just under a tenner a week.

When me and hubby started getting t/c we earned ??25k a year between us and got ??20 a week, now we're just under 15k (that's classed as a low income) and get ??76 (+ ??75 for childcare so ??151 in total) a week so if you ARE in a low income band you should be getting more than ??10 a week x

We were told that if we earn over ??24k as a joint income then we get ??10 per week. If we earned less than ??24k jointly then we would be entitled to more. Hope that helps? x

Hmmm, when I first applied when LO was a few weeks old we had a joint income that previous year(2009-2010) of approx ??30k and got ??80 a month.

I called the other week to advise that my SMP had ended and I was on unpaid ML and they asked what our income would be for the coming year April 2011-2012 (which I thought was bizzare as they had missed out 2010-2011) including what i will earn when I go back to work, and I advised approx ??22k a year and we are now recieving just over ??100 a month so not sure why we are getting so much more than others...

I have just been on their calculator too and done an estimate based on ??22k a year and it is coming out as being entitled to ??1239 a year so if I were you I would be disputing it if you get any less than that and your income is lower. I have been told it is supposed to drop when LO turns 1, my sisters dropped to ??40 a month when her daughter turned 1 as did other peoples I know and I'm expecting similar. Hope you manage to get it sorted. x