Terms & Conditions

[pdeans]

Can anyone please tell me, if a claimant has an ongoing claim and they are in receipt of Tax Credits, when they receive a new award letter telling them their new Tax Credit amounts for the new financial year, should we be processing this the same as a change to an existing award i.e. counting back 7 days if it paid weekly, 28 days if it paid 4 weekly etc then taking the change into effect from the following Monday?

Example:
A 4 weekly paid claimant gets their new award letter which shows their increased payment of WTC paid to them on 18/04/07.

Should we be counting back 28 days to the 18/03/07 then processing this as effective from the Monday following that which would be 19/03/07?

Or should it be keyed as effective from the first Monday in April?

Or am I completely wrong about this altogether?!

And also, does it matter when they received their award letter advising them of the change (which in this case was a date in May).

[Andy Thurman]

I’d say you are right to treat awards at new year just as any other time (26.3 in your example – you’ve counted back more than 28 days!) unless you use the disregard in changes in tax reg which gives you quite a lot of flexibility.

I’ve seen arguments that this rule doesn’t apply to tax credits but last time I saw DWP guidance on it, they say it does. I think, therefore, I’d use this in cases where award letter not received until May & apply from Monday after letter (assuming increase).

I’ve tried to persuade a few benefit managers to get pro-active on this and disregard all EOY changes in tax credits for 3 months to move them away from other upratings – not with success (& not completely sure if I would in their position!). 😉

[Author]

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