Dd soon to be funded for childcare - I will be worse off...

[mama2moo]

She will be 3 soon so her monthly child care costs will be paid for.

But, this means my housing benefit will drop by £300 a month and my child tax credits will drop by £200. (child care costs £250 a month)

Has anyone else not claimed the funding because of this??

Hopefully I will be working more hours and not claiming anything by the time she starts school but for now I rely on that money for bills etc.

[threerings]

Mama, I don,t know of this and is the first time I have heard of what you have said. can I ask who told you this information? As it shouldn,t be this at all.

[Imnotaslimjim]

I don't see why your HB would drop? Surely its nothing to do with having school age children?

As for CTC changing, of course it will, as you no longer need them to cover the cost of childcare if your child is going to a funded school. If you have childcare costs over the 16 hours that is covered, they will cover that

[usualsuspect]

Why will your HB drop?

And surely you can still claim some childcare costs?

[AmandaPayne]

Not sure this is right? I'm not a benefit expert, but it sounds wrong. The tax credits bit makes sense, but why the housing benefit?

[PearlyWhites]

Your ctc will go down because you don't need to pay for child care.As for hb it won't make any difference. Are you worried about the income disregard for child care because you won't need it "disregarded" anymore because you will get less ctc. Your applicable amounts will stay the same.

[mama2moo]

Thanks all, I will spend some time on the online calculators and see what they all say.

I just assumed that because I wasnt paying child care that they would reduce it!

[purpleroses]

Your tax credits currently pay 70% of it, so you're right that they'll drop by about £200. Your HB should be unaffected as it doesn't take any notice of childcare costs (except to disregard the tax credits that are paid to you to cover your childcare).

So you should be about £50 a month better off once she's 3 :)

[MagicHouse]

I didn't know that tc were affected by this. My child goes to a childminder, which is obviously not funded. He does have a morning at nursery, but I still pay my CM as she the first one they call if there's a small problem and he needed to be collected for any reason. Does anyone know if my tc will still be affected if I don't use a nursery?

[One23]

MagicHouse, if you choose to not claim or use the Early Years Funding because you do not use a childcare provider that accepts the funding (ie your CM) then your tax credits childcare element will not just automatically go down.

Are you saying that your DS goes to a CM but also does a morning at nursery once a week? If so then you would need to claim Early Years Funding for the nursery hours and inform tax credits that your average weekly childcare costs have reduced by X amount due to the funding. However, those hours are then paid for, you can't add the hours you pay the CM for when you DS is at nursery (ie hours the state is already paying your childcare for) and ask for tax credits to pay this also.

IME You need to fund the CM fees whilst he's at nursery out of your own pocket and only claim tax credits for the rest of the CM hours. Otherwise you are having your childcare paid for you twice!

As far as I know........

[ChocHobNob]

You may lose the childcare element of working tax credit but that wasn't money in your pocket or for bills anyway was it? Surely it came in and went straight out to pay for childcare. If you're then getting the funding for childcare, you will not need the extra tax credits.

Like a PP said. If you still have costs over and above the funded hours, you can still apply for help.

[MagicHouse]

Yes, the tc obviously goes straight to the childcare bill. I just wasn't sure if I would be automatically expected to use a nursery once some hours become funded, rather than my lovely childminder!
I don't claim tc for the hours he is at nursery at the moment, since I am paying two forms of childcare for those two hours, just for my childminder's costs.
I guess technically my childcare bill goes down once those hours are funded, so yes I will need to reduce the tc claim, since the fact I pay for two forms of childcare at once is not their problem!

[BarbJohnson5]

What about someone not working? My daughter will be 3 next month and i was called by a lady asking me to make an appointment to come in and fill in some forms for funding. I haven't made the appointment as yet, because i'm facing homelessness and don't know where we'll be living by that time.

[purpleroses]

Barb - everyone can get 15 hours of free education for their children once they're coming up for 3, whether they're working or not. It's a really simple form you need to fill in to allow the nursery to claim it. Hope you get your housing sorted soon.