I've recently been told that there are many families who are still able to claim some backdated money from the end of the WFTC period, ie 2002-2003. The figures mentioned are either £520 or £1040, which seem vaguely familiar. I'm not sure if there is any truth in this, does any one remember this from the time or is it just a myth? It was just before my time, so before I start wading through old CPAGs and regs I thought I'd ask. Any suggestions?

The figures you quote are for the old 'Children's Tax Credit' which was really an income tax allowance and which finished in April 2003 with the onset of CTC/WTC.

I believe that in general you can backdate a claim for a tax allowance for up to six years it might be worth looking into although i've no idea how many people would be affected.

Jon is correct. We are dealing with a tax allowance where the claim period expires on 31 January 2009 for the tax year 2002/03.

See our website for a little more information:

www.litrg.org.uk/help/lowincome/selfemployed/taxallowances.cfm#children

Thanks for that, I'll have to do a take up campaign to make sure all my families have claimed it. Can't let the revenue get away with not paying!