Terms & Conditions

[Anonymous]

Are we still supposed to apply an earnings disregard (based on income for 2001/02) when we know that the person has not worked since March 2003?
If anyone is able to answer this, please provide me with the piece of legislation appropriate.
Many thanks.

[Mark]

I’m confused. If there are no earnings there is no earned income disregard and there shouldn’t be any WTC either after the work ended. Is this a 30hr premium issue or am I missing something?

[Anonymous]

Sorry. Fear of further humiliation aside, what if the person is still working, but their hours have dipped to under 30? They would probalby still have the 30 hour element within assessed WTC, so should we consider a disregard on that basis? 😳

[Mark]

Yes. If the 30hr premium is included in the WTC it must be disregarded regardless of the hours the person now works.

[Anonymous]

Thank you Mark. Any evidence to back this up?

[Mark]

Yep – HB Regs Schedule 4 para 58 and CTB regs Schedule 4 para 57.

[Anonymous]

Hi Mark

As a professional advise running a very busy advice agency.

Take it from me we have seen hundreds of incorrect WTC awards based on previous years earnings.

Many people claimed last year (August – December) when they were working, now for what ever reasons (Sickness, redundancy, sacked) many have not worked at all in 2003, yet they have been given full awards from April based on previous years earnings.

Try telling someone single with £54 Incapacity and £42 WTC, or a single parent with there only income being WTC at £140 weekly and Child Benefit, that they should give it up as they are no longer working.

Overpayment are far higher that anyone can imagine, as we predicted in April 03.

Most think that this new WTC system is the same as the previous WFTC where changes did not alter the award for six months.

As a side issue the person with WTC & Incapacity who has never worked this year did get the 30 hour disregard in his Housing Benefit from this April.

[Mark]

Spot on Bill. I meant “shouldn’t” in the legal sense not the moral one! The whole Tax Credits system is a complete mess. Revenue staff are poorly trained. Revenue computer systems are useless. Award calculations are mostly garbage. Nobody really knows what types of changes should and shouldn’t be reported – including LA’s. It was difficult to even establish that WTC awards should end when work ends and as we get nearer to the end of the tax year even that seems not to be 100% true. In the midst of all this HB departments struggle daily to come up with fair ways of dealing with changes in Tax Credit awards because the legal framework just ain’t there and the guidance from the DWP is written backwards in Swahili.

[Author]

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