In this section:
- How changes at home and work affect your tax credits
- Tax credits: how and when to tell us about changes
- Family changes - how they can affect your tax credits
- Changes at work - how they can affect your tax credits
- Changes in income and tax credits
- Changes to childcare arrangements and tax credits
- You haven't reported a change - what happens to your tax credits?
How changes at home and work affect your tax credits
Tax credits are flexible and change when your life changes. If you don't tell us straight away about any changes, you may not be getting all the money you are entitled to, or you could be building up an overpayment which you may have to pay back.
Why it's so important to report a change straight away
When you tell us about a change in your circumstances we'll recalculate your tax credits and send you an award notice that shows your new payments.
If you don't tell us straight away about a change we won't know about it until you renew your tax credits. The renewals process is a review carried out after the end of each year to make sure we have paid you the right amount of tax credits for the previous tax year and that we are paying you the right amount for the current tax year. A tax year starts on 6 April in one year and ends on 5 April in the next year. If you have received too much money (an overpayment), you may have to pay it back.
Not telling us about a change in circumstance straight away is one of the main reasons that overpayments happen.
Changes you must tell us about within one month
Some changes in circumstance mean that your tax credit payments will go down, for example you stop working or your child leaves full-time education. You must tell us about such changes within one month, or you could get paid too much money and have to pay it back, and you may be charged a penalty of up to £300.
You have one month to tell us if:
- you start or stop living with a partner
- your working hours change
- your childcare costs change
- a child moves out to live with someone else
- a child leaves full-time education
- a child starts claiming tax credits in their own right
- you or your partner leave the United Kingdom for more than eight weeks
Other changes to tell us about as soon as possible
Some changes in circumstance mean your tax credit payments will go up, such as having a baby. Although you don't need to tell us within one month, it's better to do it straight away as any increase in payments can only be backdated by up to three months. So if you had a baby on 12 June but you didn't tell us until 12 October, we could only give you the extra money from 12 July. You'd miss out on one month's extra payment.
Tell us straight away if:
- you have a baby
- your income goes down
- your childcare costs go up
- a child over 16 but under 20 is in full time education
- you start working 30 hours or more a week.
Find out how and when to tell us about changes
What happens if you don't report a change?
It's very important to tell us about any changes straight away so we pay you the right amount of tax credits. If you don't tell us, you might:
- get too much money - and have to pay some back
- not get the money that's due to you. If you leave it longer than three months after the change you won't be able to get all the extra money you should have had.
If we've paid you too much money you may have to pay it back. We'll either:
- reduce your payments if you're still getting tax credits
- ask you to pay us the full amount if you're not
You may also have to pay a penalty of up to £300.
Find out what happens if you don't report a change
Contact us
You can tell us about a change in circumstance by calling the Tax Credit Helpline on Tel 0845 300 3900 or textphone 0845 300 3909 (open from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm, seven days a week except Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year's Day).
More useful links
Checking your tax credits award notice
