How to claim

Contact the Tax Credit Helpline for a claim form (tel: 0345 300 3900; textphone: 0345 300 3909). It can take up to two weeks to arrive.

If you are already claiming tax credits you don’t need a claim form, you can call the helpline to update your claim. Claims have to be renewed once a year.

The report by the LSE and Universities of Manchester and York (see page 7) show that under the coalition government, Child Tax Credit and Child Benefit payments were frozen in cash terms between 2009-10 and 2012-13. The income threshold at which families cease to be eligible for the family element of Child Tax Credit was lowered substantially, so that CTC became a more tightly targeted benefit. Universal Child Benefit was removed from families that included a higher-rate taxpayer. Tax credits were made less generous in various ways including:

• the abolition of the “baby element” of Child Tax Credit (CTC);

• tighter targeting of CTC through a substantial reduction in the income threshold at which families cease to be eligible;

• a faster rate of tax credit withdrawal as earnings rise;

• an increase in the weekly working hours requirement for couples with children; and

• a reduction from 80% to 70% in the maximum share of childcare costs covered.