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Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit

 

Nine out of ten families are eligible to claim support towards bringing up their families

If you are a low-income household without any children, you may still be able to claim.
 

Working Tax Credit

Child Tax Credit

Paid into a bank account, a Post Office account or by giro cheque, for low to middle income families, with or without children.

Paid to the person mainly responsible for caring for the child – usually the mother.

Available to:

  • People with dependant children and/or a disability working at least 16 hours a week.
  • People aged 25 or over and working at Least 30 hours a week.              

Available to a household with:

  • At least one dependant child under 16 or
  • At least one dependant young person under 19 in full time, non advanced education 
  • At least one dependant young person under 18 registered with the careers or Connexions service              

Up to 80% of eligible childcare costs can be claimed as part of the Working Tax Credit. Up to £175 per week (max net £140.00) for one child and £300 a week (max net £240) for two or more children can be claimed. If eligible these will be paid to the person mainly responsible for caring for the child – usually the mother.

A separate child element will be payable for each child in the household. There is a disability element for children with a disability and a severe disability element for those children who are severely disabled. There is an additional element for families with a baby under one year of age.

 

Eligibility
Anyone can check to see if they are eligible to receive tax credits. 

  • The tax credits are income related but also take into account the number of children you have and the cost of childcare.
  • A family with two children and a household income of up to £62,200 may be eligible to receive working tax credit.
  • Families with a household income of up to £58,000 can receive child tax credits whether they work or not. 
  • Families with a child under a year old and a household income of £66,000 can receive child tax credits whether they work or not.    

You can check your eligibility by:

Claiming tax credits
You simply need to fill in a single form which you can get by contacting one of the organisations listed above.

You will need to fill in this form every 12 months.  It will be automatically sent to you when your claim needs to be renewed.

Please note: childcare vouchers can reduce your tax credits
About one in ten employers offer some kind of assistance for their employees who have children, such as childcare allowances, subsidised childcare services or flexible working hours.  Some offer childcare vouchers:

  • They are a means of paying for childcare.
  • The first £55 per week supplied by childcare vouchers is exempt from tax and National Insurance contributions, so they help you save money on childcare.  
  • A lower level tax payer could save more than £962 per year and someone who pays 40 per cent tax could save over £1195 per year.
  • However, the vouchers are usually offered through a ‘salary sacrifice scheme’ so can affect your overall financial position and therefore affect the amount of your working tax credit.
  • Childcare vouchers must also be reduced from the childcare element of working tax credit. 
  • Pensions, maternity pay, sick pay, overtime and incapacity benefits may also be affected by salary sacrifice schemes.     

Related pages:

External websites:

Contact us: 
Families Information Service
3rd floor, New Town House
Buttermarket Street
Warrington, WA1 2NJ
Tel: 01925 443131
Email: fis@warrington.gov.uk