Tax credits - rights and responsibilities

The amount of tax credits you get is based on information that you give the Tax Credit Office about your circumstances. To help get your award right, and avoid building up an overpayment, it’s important that the Tax Credit Office meet their responsibilities and you meet yours.

On this page:

The Tax Credit Office’s responsibilities
Your responsibilities
What to do when you get an award notice
More useful links

The Tax Credit Office’s responsibilities

When the Tax Credit Office deals with your tax credits claim, they aim to:

give you the correct advice based on the information you give them
offer you support - for example, if you want them to explain your award notice to you, they’ll talk you through it in detail
accurately record and use the information you give them when you make or renew your claim, to work out your tax credits and pay you the correct amount
send you an award notice including the information you’ve given them about your family and your income - if you tell them that there is a mistake or something missing on your award notice, they’ll put it right and send you a corrected award notice
accurately record what you’ve told them about a change in your circumstances, and send you a new award notice within 30 days

The 30 days doesn’t start until the Tax Credit Office gets all of the information they need from you to make the change. So it's important that you give them all the information when you tell them about a change.

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Your responsibilities

When you make or renew your tax credits claim, the Tax Credit Office expects you to:

give them accurate, complete and up to date information
tell them about any changes in your circumstances throughout the year so they have accurate and up to date information
reduce the chance of building up an overpayment by telling them about any changes in your income as soon as possible

The law says you must tell the Tax Credit Office about certain changes within one month of them happening - for example, stopping work. Use the checklist you’re sent with your award notice to check what the changes are.

There are certain changes that you don’t need to report within one month - for example if you have a new baby. But it's best to report all changes straight away. This is because if a change is likely to increase your tax credits payments, the increase can only be backdated by up to one month.

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What to do when you get an award notice

Each time you get an award notice you should:

use the checklist you’re sent with it to check all the items listed
tell the Tax Credit Office if anything is wrong, missing or incomplete
check that the payments you get from the Tax Credit Office every week or every four weeks match the amount they said you should get on the award notice
tell them if you got any payments that didn’t match what was shown on the award notices during the period an overpayment arose

What to check

You must tell the Tax Credit Office about some changes within one month of them happening. These are listed on the back of the checklist, but the main details they expect you to check are:

whether the award is for you as an individual or as part of a couple
the hours you work
whether you get Income Support, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance or Pension Credit
that a disability element is shown if you, or anyone in your household is entitled to it
the number and age of any children in your household
childcare costs
your total household income for the period shown on the award notice
whether the tax credit payments they pay into your account are the amount they said they'd be on your award notice

It's best to tell the Tax Credit Office about all changes within one month. This is because if a change is likely to increase your tax credits payments, the increase can only be backdated by up to one month.

Checking your tax credits award notice

Changes that affect your tax credits

If you spot a mistake on your award notice

If you spot a mistake on your award notice you should:

tell the Tax Credit Office within one month of getting your award notice
make a note of when you got your award notice and when you told the Tax Credit Office about the mistake - the Tax Credit Office may ask you for this information to show that you acted within one month

If you don’t understand any award notice please phone the Tax Credit Helpline as soon as possible.

Contact details for the Tax Credit Helpline