Terms & Conditions

[Anonymous]

I have spent numerous hours on the telephone to the tax credit helpline, in many cases hanging up and retrying up to 5 times for any one case. On one occassion I spoke to a very helpfull member of staff who told me the best way to apportion the award is to calculate it yourself.

If the person receives any amount of WTC or if their gross annual income is less than £5060 (shown on award notice), they are entitled to the maximum CTC. Maximum daily rates for CTC are as follows:

£3.95 Child element – payable for each child.
£1.49 Family element.
£1.49 Baby element.
£5.89 disability element – payable for each disabled child
£2.36 Severe disability element – payable for each severely disabled child

E.g. If the claimant has a child who was 1 on 15th July 2003, they would be entitled to £693.00 for the period 06/04/03 to 14/07/03 (100 days @ £6.93 per day) and £1447.04 for the period 15/07/03 to 05/04/04 (266 days @ £5.44 per day). This should then make an annual award of £2140.04.

So far all the predictable changes I have calculated in this way have balanced back to the annual award shown on the award notice.

If they are not entitled to the maximum CTC, it’s a bit more complicated in that you have to apply a taper of 37%, but it’s still possible to calculate it providing you know what elements of WTC and CTC apply.

If you have any examples, e-mail me the award details and the date of change and I will work through the calculation for you to follow in future. My e-mail address is m . c o l e @ n e a t h – p o r t t a l b o t . g o v . u . k (without the spaces)