4. Awards of working tax credit

Your award is based on your income in the previous tax year (see Chapter 17). Your income might be very different this year. When you get your initial award, tell HMRC straight away how much your income is expected to be in the current year if it will be more than £2,500 lower or more than £2,500 higher than the previous year.

Any childcare element of working tax credit (WTC) is paid to the main carer directly into a bank account. Otherwise WTC is paid into the bank account of the person in work.