New rules on Child Tax Credits which will affect many Chester parents, are set to come into force today (Thursday, April 6).
The Government are looking to find £1.2bn by 2020 by making cutbacks that will be felt most by lowest-income families.
It is estimated the cuts, first announced by former Chancellor George Osborne two years ago, will affect 515,000 families by 2020, reports our sister paper The Mirror.
Child Tax Credit is paid by the Government to low income families to help parents with the costs of bringing up a child.
Couples make a joint claim, and if you're a single parent, the resident parent is usually the one to make the claim.
The amount of money parents are entitled to depends on factors including income and other circumstances. You do not need to be working to claim Child Tax Credit.
Those responsible for children receive money for each child which qualifies. But in the new shake-up, the amount of children it helps per family is set to change.
Child Tax Credit - which is worth up to £2,780 per child per year - will only be paid for the first two children in any family.
Historically there has not been a limit on how many children a parent can claim for.
If your children were born before today, credits for three or more children will still be applicable.
However, if you have a third child on or after today, you will not get any more money for the extra child.
The changes are controversial because it will deny huge sums of money to large families in future.
And the Government is also removing the family element - a payment of £545 for a newborn first child. But parents of children born before Thursday will still get this.
Who isn’t affected?
- Children already alive, if their parents keep claiming without a long break
- Children born through rape, but mum must prove it
- Twins or triplets born to families who had one child
- Children looked after by a ‘friend or family carer’
- Children who have been adopted (except by step-parents)
- Disabled children, who are counted separately
