Why and how you need to renew your tax credits claim

Renew your tax credits as soon as you get your renewal pack. This helps to make sure you’ve been paid the right money during the last tax year - and that you get the right money for the coming year. If you don’t renew, your payments will stop. You can either renew by phone or by sending back your form to the Tax Credit Office.

Why is it important to renew your tax credits claim?

You need to renew your tax credits so that:

the Tax Credit Office has the right information about you and knows if anything has changed
you don’t get paid too much tax credits – an ‘overpayment’ – for the coming tax year that you have to pay back
you continue to get all the money you're entitled to for the coming tax year
you can make sure your income is still within the limits for getting tax credits

A tax year runs from 6 April one year to 5 April the next.

What happens to your payments before you renew?

Your payments will carry on from the start of the new tax year until such time as you renew your claim or 31 July, whichever comes first. But these payments will be temporary (called ‘provisional’ payments) until you give the Tax Credit Office the information they need.

If you delay renewing, your provisional payments could be based on out of date information and may be too high. If this happens, you may have to pay money back that you should not have had.

If you don’t renew, your provisional payments will stop. You usually have to repay all the money you have had since the start of the new tax year.

How to renew

If you’ve only got an Annual Review notice in your renewal pack, you need to check the information on the notice carefully. If it’s correct you don’t need to do anything. Your tax credits will be automatically renewed.

You need to contact the Tax Credit Helpline if:

you have had any changes in your circumstances
your income is above the limits shown in the notice
there are mistakes or details missing from the notice

If you’ve been sent both an Annual Review notice and an Annual Declaration form, you can renew by either:

completing the Annual Declaration form and returning it in the envelope provided
calling the Tax Credit Helpline
Contact details for the Tax Credit Helpline

Information you need when you renew

Make sure you’ve got the information together that you need before you renew. You’ll need:

your renewal pack
details of any changes in your circumstances that you haven’t already reported
the amount of your total income (including that of any partner) for the last tax year
Help with the tax credits renewal pack
Tax credits: changes you need to report and when

Who gets a renewal pack?

Everyone who gets tax credits gets a renewal pack. This applies even if you:

claimed tax credits but didn't get them because your income is too high (a 'nil' award)
only got tax credits for part of the year

If you have made more than one tax credits claim during the year, you will be sent a separate renewal pack for each claim.

What happens if you don't renew?

If you’ve been sent an Annual Declaration and don't renew:

your payments will stop
you will have to pay back any money from the previous tax year that you weren't entitled to
you will have to pay back any money paid to you since the start of the new tax year

You’ll get a statement from the Tax Credit Office about your tax credits payments. You then have a further 30 days to provide the information asked for. If you don’t provide the information within 30 days, you will usually have to make a new tax credits claim.

What happens after you have renewed?

If you only received an Annual Review notice

If you reported a change of circumstances or missing information after you checked your Annual Review notice, you'll get an amended award notice.

Check the amended award notice and tell the Tax Credit Office if anything is wrong, missing or incomplete. You need to do this within one month.

If you’ve completed an Annual Declaration

The Tax Credit Office will:

check that you received the right amount of tax credit payments in the last tax tear
send you an award notice with a final decision for the year
check your tax credits for the new tax year
send you another award notice showing what your payments will be for the new year

Your award notices will show any overpayments or underpayments.

Check the amended award notice and tell the Tax Credit Office if anything is wrong, missing or incomplete. You need to do this within one month.

When you can expect your renewal to be dealt with

It can take up to six weeks for the Tax Credit Office to deal with your renewal. You only need to contact the Tax Credit Helpline if either of the following apply:

you have not been sent your award notices (for both last tax year and the new tax year) within six weeks of when you renewed
the information on your award notice is wrong, missing or incomplete
Contact the Tax Credit Helpline

Why you need to report changes

You should report any changes in your personal circumstances straight away.

You could lose money if you don't as tax credits can only be backdated by up to three months.

For example if you have a baby on 12 June, but do not let the Tax Credit Office know until 12 October, they will only backdate your payments until 12 July.