in receipt of working families/child tax credit?

Question

i am doing a presentation at uni and was wondering how people feel about this benefit and if they feel it is working for them and helping improve their circumstances or if is making things difficult...your input will be very much appreciated,in my experience of it i have mixed feelings, it has helped me get into work but is just a major hassle as they always get it wrong, and i have always ended up owing them money, and feel that i am better off if i work full time rather than part time, just wanted to know if it's the same for everyone?

(am doing my presentation on the wftc policy set out by the treasury this is why i am asking)

Answer 1

Initially it was a god send, it really made a difference. Then........................ for what ever reason you have to amend your claim. one example of the many "screw ups" is as follows
Your on a single claim, working part-time but not enough for working tax, you are honnest and tell them when you have your partner move in, you phone give them all the info the figures from his income, you even phone in the following week to double check theyve got it right. 6 months later when you get your post office statement, you notice an IR payment you cant account for. When you phone them all you get is, oh its not us your claim is paying you this and that. You persist, they put you on hold, 30 mins later they tell you "oooopps" the reason they didnt recognise it,It was its money from your closed claim, which for some reason they cant understand is still active, its from when you were single and its still being paid. It doesnt show on their screens when you phone up. As when you close a claim, and update it for a new one only the new claim is the one thats live on screen. (they have to go through archives through another department to see old claims.)
Then they tell you you owe them £3k!!!!!!!!!!!!! and even though you did tell them of the change of circumstance and its not your fault they want the money back ASAP.
The icing on the cake is when you say, "so you can confirm the money has now stopped going into my account?"
the response was "oh no, sorry you will still get the money paid to you weekly, you need to put it to one side so you can pay it back to us." Apparently it will continue to be paid until the new tax year!!!!!
Guess you could say how I feel about CTC is majorly p'd off. I wasnt in debt, now I am.
I was told the Inland Revenue have set up a new commission to investigate this problem it looks like alot of it stems from when they had their systems updated in June 06 and they were manually taking information to input once the system was up and running again.
I know with WTFC when we were getting that we were in a real pickle when my partner was offered over time employers dont appreciate the roll back effect if your estimated income is over what they have on the IR records.
It seems no matter what you always end up struggling.
Not sure if you will find it much different working full time to part time though.

Answer 2

I too am grateful as theres no way i could go to work. Ten years ago when i had my first child there was no such system. Allthough i was pleased to be a stay at home single mum I hated "sponging of the state" on benefits, theres nothing more degrading. When my child was old enough to start in reception i got myself a cleanig job at her school to get me earning my own money, wasnt alot but what i was waiting for was a teaching asssistant position. I am now working in Nursery and have been for the past 5 years and theres no other job i could do (or want to do) due to the amount of time taken of due to school holidays. I too am one of the unfortunates that owe back money (£4000) and am getting so fed up that a year later nothing has been resolved and when i do ring up i have to talk to someone different everytime and go over it all over again. It costs a fortune for the privelege of ringing them on the premium number as it is. If its helping families out then why can they not provide a free phone number! AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH Sorry, good luck on your presentation!

Answer 3

It is not very good in my experience half the operaters don't know what they are talking about and if you are part of a couple your penalised even more and it makes no allowance for your outgoings eg if you have a mortgage you ge the same as someone in a council house who may not be paying the same rent as you so end up better off and Because I work I would get the same if I didn't so where is the incentive to work not that I need one but it annoys me anyway hope it helps

Answer 4

It's really helped our family. After our second child was born it meant i had a choice of either going back to work or staying at home with our children. I chose to stay at home and enjoy my two young children, I enjoyed the stages I missed with my first daughter as I had no choice but to go back to work when she was a baby. Without child tax credits this would not have been possible. We don't have as much spare money now and have had to 'cut our cloth' but its certainly worth it to enjoy these important years of our children growing up.
We have ended up owing them money a couple of times but not a huge amount and they ended up owing us one year so its been swings and roundabout for us, I know that in the press there have been some high profile cases but fingers crossed we havent had a big problem with them. I have been very carful to let them know of any changes though.

Answer 5

No they don't have a duty to chase the forms. It is your responsibility to make sure the relevant forms get sent on time. Whether that is fair or not is another matter - but thats the way it is. You can appeal against repayment, but since they followed the rules the chances of you succeeding in an appeal are minimal. The only way you'll succeed with an appeal is if they gave you incorrect information which it was reasonable for you to believe was correct.

Answer 6

Like most of the above I could not do without WFT..........BUT -

It pisses me off because you loose all the perks of getting you Rent paid, Council tax paid, school dinner monies, school grants etc so lets not forget that what you gain on the swings we are losing on the roundabout.

I am a single mum and I think workers are penalised because you work to earn and then pay everything back out again. Whereas those who are unemployed get everything paid and have an allowance to live on. I as I'm sure most others rarely have anything left once all the outgoings are paid.......

Oh and I have also been 'overpaid' and am paying money back!

Answer 7

For me its been a lifesaver! There was no way I could work if it wasnt for tax credits. I would be on income support and miserable!
Yes they get it wrong and I owe them money but they dont make me pay too much back at a time.
I am now at uni full time and my partner works full time but for minimum wage so with 3 kids at home tax credits make up half our income.

Answer 8

I do think it's been a good thing, however, they do seem to get it wrong quite alot of the time, which in the end causes more stress and financial strain on the family.
I have a friend who was enquiring about her benefit (it was late I think) and she was told that it should never be relied on as it wasn't classed as a guaranteed income and that it could be withdrawn at any time......
How many people are aware of that?

Answer 9

I have mixed feelings about it too. It has helped me get back to work after having my son as Im a single parent but Ive found that I'll be given it in one hand but then its taken away by another i.e my housing benefit.

Answer 10

I am on Tax credit as well as Child Tax credit, and let me tell you I have not had no problem with them. Without them, i don't know how i would have coped being single with kids. The trouble is you miss Child Tax Credit once your kids start University. But yes my overall of the above, i think they were great with me.