www.iva.co.uk

Morning all...
ust had notification that my Tax Credits will end in April - bit of a shock as my son is still in full time education, so didn't envisage any change til this time next year when he leaves college.
It looks it's to do with the new cut off point of what you are allowed to earn.

I emailed my Case Manager yesterday to let them know, just wondering if there's anything else I should be doing?

You wont be alone in this and just have to wait and see what your ip says.

How much will you lose a month?

Paul

Hi Paul,

I'll be losing £45, which doesn't sound that much in the grand scheme of things, but it's a full tank of petrol for my little car, or a good supermarket shop for the two of us.

I think people are really going to be struggling in the next few months with benefits being cut.

Given the tight constraints of an IVA £45 is a massive amount of money!!!

Our benefit is reducing this year but only by £15 a month,so we will still get £26,better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Cant wait to see what happens with aprils pay what with changes to tax allowances,national insurance changes etc etc etc.

Paul

I've managed to get a better deal on my Home Insurance for this year, and my son's now got a part time job, so can off set the money I'm saving from not giving him pocket money - just when I thought I'd be able to start adding to my emergency fund!

hiya,
i am loosing mine from april also, same amount which is quite a lot to loose, especially as you say everything else is going up!
i know ips are able to reduce payments by a small percentage without going back to creditors for approval, and i guess this will be happening a lot over the next months.

Hi Kat,

Hope you're doing OK - apart from the Tax Credits!
I'm hoping to be able to manage, as it looks like another pay freeze is on the cards too this year, and some big changes will be happening at work from April 13, so don't really want to ask if a reduction would be possible just yet.
This last year has certainly turned me into a bargain hunter in the supermarket..will just have to try and be even more careful!

We lost ours last year, just before our creditors meeting was arranged so our proposal had to be rewritten, I'm quite pleased it happened then rather than facing it now as our costs have escalated enough this year without losing that amount of income.

I agree with Jan, the next few months are going to be a testing time for many of us

Don't you need to tell Tax Credit Office that the children are continuing higher education (full-time)? I thought that they automatically paid until the end of their school year, then they treat sixth formers differently to school children on the claim.

May be worth a quick phonecall to TC office.

Its down to both a change in maximum you can earn before you lose the credits and a change in how many hours they want you to work to remain entitled.

Paul

Hi all,

Life is getting a little hectic for us all at the mo. I'm also loosing my tax credit as of April and have read this morning that I'm also likely to loose our child benefit. Between them this is a whopping £170 per month. This is because I'm on the higher tax bracket which by the way is also being reduced in April 2012 to just over £35k per individual, so if one partner earn more than this then they too will be captured in that bracket; if so then the good old coalition are also robbing you of your child benefit payment. WOW. If this doesn't make life almost impossible I'm also a public service worker and will take a pay cut as of April due to increased pension contributions of which I've no control over. For me and my family come April and in an IVA I'm likely to loose in the region of £220 per month. And to top it all NRAM are playing hard ball and forcing me back onto a repayment mortgage, having been on interest only for 3 years. No choice what so ever other than a consideration to extend my terms which they are in the process of making a decision on. Still at the bottom end I'm looking at paying a further £365 towards my mortgage. For me I'm having to return to my creditors with a view to decreasing my payments from £468 to £200 per month. Even if they do accept it I'm taking a huge hit in the pocket. I guess its time to look a little closer at bankruptcy?

Are they not looking at child allowance again? Sure I read that they were.

Paul

Child benefit payments are not being stopped until Jan 2013 and only then for someone earning £43k or more

The 40% tax bracket has always been £35k, well actually it's £42k but you only start paying 40% when your pay minus your personal allowance reaches 42k (so this is where you are getting 35k from, as you have to be earning 42k minus your personal allowance of 7k before you start paying 40% tax of anything above that.)

Yes Paul I think they are looking at it again with a view to maybe raising the threshold at which the benefit would be stopped. In any event, I know I will be losing it!