i am trying sort out my tax credits....im very confused..i phoned up and they said id be allowed 10 pound odd a week for child tax credit but zilch for working.....im confused by te £100 deduction how do u work it out now. my babys 10 weeks old im wondering whether i shuld sort it out now or not xx
Yes, you should defo give them a call. Your income for the weeks that you get normal SMP for(£128 odds), you can deduct £100 from the total you gave tax credits in April '11 as you gave them your total income for last year. As you are on a lower income this year due to maternity, they then recalculate what you're entitled to. It all depends on your circumstances too.
It'll probably be another week or two before I know what I'll get as I only contacted them on 23/05/11, but I'm not expecting it to be mega bucks, but then every little helps whilst you're off on mat leave. I didn't realise just how much worse off I'd be on mat leave for some weird reason!
I probably haven't done a good job in explaining how to work it out, but I'll try with an example...
Say you get £13,000 per annum for your salary, you go on mat leave for the 39 weeks. The first 6 weeks you are paid 90% of your salary, therefore you have 33 weeks left on mat leave getting SMP at the rate of £128. Working Tax Credit allow you to deduct £100 for those weeks which equals £3300 from your annual income which would leave £9700 as your annual income for this year. You call them and give them that figure and as you'd be classed as on a low income, they recalculate your entitlement.
The above is just an example as obviously I don't know what your total household income is or your circumstances, but as I understand it, its really subtracting the £3300 from whatever YOUR total household annual income is, calling them and asking them to recalculate. I know in my head that I make sense to me

Its difficult trying to explain it. But really, best thing to do is give them a call and tell them you're aware that you can deduct £100 per week due to SMP and get them to help you with calculations etc. That's what they're there for. x