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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Income support, JSA and tax credits  →  Thread

When does a Tax Credit claim end?

Ianb
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Macmillan benefits team, Citizens Advice Bristol

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Apologies for asking what feels like a silly question but Tax Credits remain a bit of a mystery to me. They’ve been phasing them out ever since I started doing benefits advice and so I have limited experience dealing with them.

Client currently receives WTC. Has not worked for a while due to illness but is treated as working because receiving SSP. The SSP will end in March before the end of this tax year so entitlement to WTC will end. However all being well client will return to work later in 2022.

I am not clear whether the WTC claim will have been closed in March when SSP ends and client can no longer be treated as in work or whether it can persist as a nil entitlement award.. I would like it to be the latter so client could qualify for payment again when returning to work but I fear it is the former (which seems more likely).

Client is excluded from UC due to savings so that isn’t an option.

chacha
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Benefits dept - Hertsmere Borough Council

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Not exactly my forte but see an earlier thread, actually just a few below your post, so it is all about times/periods of the absence?

https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/17192/

Ianb
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Macmillan benefits team, Citizens Advice Bristol

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Thanks chacha. My question is different. That threads refers to being treated as still in work while getting SSP which is the situation my client is in now. I know they will still be off work when SSP ends at which time they will no longer be treated as in work. My question is does that end the claim completely or result in a nil entitlement award as we go into 2022-23?

chacha
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Hi Ianb,

I should have been clearer I think once SSP ends, which you have said, then the claim will end unless there is another way for the claimant to be treated as still being work, full or part-time depending on appropriate circumstances.

Sorry, can’t be of more help than that but I am sure someone will say, if that’s correct or not.

Edited: I think there is a 4 week period after the 28 weeks of WTC entitlement based on the SSP so making a total of 32 weeks, but again, I may be wrong.

[ Edited: 5 Jan 2022 at 08:31 pm by chacha ]
Ianb
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Macmillan benefits team, Citizens Advice Bristol

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I think the claim ends too but, particularly as client will not have access to UC due to savings, I wanted to check.

I think the four week run on only applies if you have recently stopped work,  not when a period of being treated as if in work has ended.

I recall there is a thread about reclaiming Tax Credits in the year after a claim ends but I haven’t found it (and can’t recall the conclusion).
[EDIT - found it ]https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/16002/P30/]

I am having difficulty getting my head around the ruling now published in respect reclaims.
As I understand it -

If a Tax Credit claim ends (year 1) and the claimant tries to reclaim part way through the following tax year (year 2) this ruling means the claim fails because it is not for the whole year (I find the interpretation that the term applies to the whole year surprising but it is now what it is).  Even if a claim were made on 6th April in the following year (year 3) that would fail because there will not have been a claim in the preceding year (year 2). 

The question of whether or not my client will have an initial nil award for 2022-23 or will have had the claim closed (as we have agreed seems likely) is crucial.

[ Edited: 6 Jan 2022 at 02:11 pm by Ianb ]