Terms & Conditions

[Anonymous]

We have received a letter from a claimant which is obviously authored by a housing association.

They indicate that we have not awarded the £48 child care disregards (they would be entitled to it)

We think (but can’t find where) that as the WTC includes a payment for child care (not £48 but £2080 per annum), she can’t have ours as well

Is this right or are we barking up the wrong tree ?

[jerikaz]

I think that if the claimant has childcare costs and mees all the criteria for the disregard from earning, then you should apply it.

[seanosul]

The reason you cannot find it is it does not exist. Ours is disregarded so it is not taken straight back off her once tax credits award it.

[andyrichards]

The whole world is looking for the “tax credit expert”, wherever he or she is, but anyway I think you are wrong here. We assess the childcare disregard on our rules (eligible kids, registered childcare, remunerative work). Receipt of whatever element of WTC does not come into it.

In fact I would suggest that most people getting the childcare element of WTC will be eligible for the HB disregard. They would lose any financial benefit from the childcare element if they didn’t.

[Bobkirkpatrick]

Try looking at the HB Regulations (Regulation 28) and the HB Guidance Manual (paras. 3.160 onwards).

And think about it – claimant incurs childcare costs – contribution to this awarded within WTC – therefore income higher – HB claimed – if you take income including childcare element of WTC fully into account then the benefit of the childcare element in WTC largely lost – hence similar disregard in HB to ensure that WTC childcare element not lost.

Will you go through your caseload and identify other similar cases where claimants have not had a housing association writing in their behalf?

[Bobkirkpatrick]

Should read Regulation 28…… and not Regulation 2smiley.

[Anonymous]

[quote:b26292e0a9=”Bob Kirkpatrick”]

Will you go through your caseload and identify other similar cases where claimants have not had a housing association writing in their behalf?[/quote:b26292e0a9]

Oh yes… :11:

[Anonymous]

[quote:3092123fd9=”Bob Kirkpatrick”]

Will you go through your caseload and identify other similar cases where claimants have not had a housing association writing in their behalf?[/quote:3092123fd9]

Oh yes… :11:

[chris harvey]

It would certainly be recommended good practice to maximise customers benefit entitlements particularly where a local authority discovers potential under payments due to a previous misinterpretation of the rules. The additional benefit enriches the whole community not just the individual by increasing disposable income. We regularly run scripts and reports from our system to try and identify potential claimants of Income support, Pension Credit, attendance Allowance and HB/CTB premiums which may have been missed by the system (SDP is one that springs to mind). Now i have another one to think about… how can I extract cases where WTC is in payment that have child care costs disregarded in WTC but not in HB/CTB and vice versa?

[Author]

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