THOUSANDS of working families have only a week left to renew their entitlement to cash support or risk losing it.

Each year a claim for tax credits must be renewed, otherwise the benefit could be stopped, and you could even have to pay money back.

Customers who leave their renewal application until the last minute are running out of time.

The deadline is July 31 so it's important to send in your claim NOW.

There are two types of tax credits – working tax and child tax credit.

Universal Credit has replaced both these for new claimants, but many have not yet made the switch over to the newer benefit – although everyone will be transitioned over to receiving Universal Credit by 2024.

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The official deadline when applications shut is Sunday July 31 but HMRC is urging working families to renew their entitlement as soon as possible.

More than 226,600 tax credit customers still need to renew their claims before the end of the month.

Myrtle Lloyd, HMRC’s director general for customer services, said: "The July 31 deadline is fast approaching and renewing your tax credits is too important to forget.

"HMRC support is available at all times of the day and night via GOV.UK and the smartphone app to help customers get their renewals right.

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"It’s great to see so many customers have already renewed their tax credits. I urge those who are yet to renew to do so as soon as possible, in order to avoid having their payments stopped."

How do I renew my entitlement for tax credits?

You should have been sent a renewal pack, which contains all the information you need in order to renew your tax credits.

This will include information on how your circumstances have changed, and the income of you and your partner for the previous tax year, which ran from April 6 2021 to April 5 2022.

You can renew your tax credits online, by post or over the phone.

To do it online you need to log in to your tax credits account and follow the instruction.

You can renew over the phone by calling HMRC on 0345 300 3900. 

By post, you need to sill in the forms in your renewal pack, and send it to: Tax Credit Office, HM Revenue and Customs, BX9 1LR.

What if I don't put in a renewal claim?

You'll lose your entitlement to the benefit and you may have to pay back any tax credits you've received since April 6 this year.

HMRC will then send you a letter, which will say TC607 on it to confirm this.

However, you will have 30 days to contact the HMRC and tell them why you missed the deadline.

You could be given until January 31 2023 to confirm your details but this isn't guaranteed and is decided on by a case-by-case basis.

If you don't respond within 30 days of receiving the letter you'll have to pay back all tax credits received since April 6 this year.

How much can can you usually expect to get with tax credit?

Tax credits are for those on low incomes and who may have a child or disability,

The exact amount you can get depends on your circumstances.

The exact amount you can get depends on your circumstances, so take the below figures with a pinch of salt.

Working tax credits per year:

• Basic element £2,070
• Couple and lone parent element £2,125
• 30 hour element £860
• Disabled worker element £3,345
• Severe disability element £1,445
• Childcare element £175 or £300, depending on the number of children

Child tax credits per year:

• Family element £545
• Child element £2,935
• Disability element: disabled child rate £3,545
• Disability element: severally disabled child rate £1,430

Could I be better off switching to Universal Credit now?

You can chose to move over to Universal Credit from tax credits at any time.

But you should consider it carefully, as you can't move back once you're on Universal Credit and you might not be better off.

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Charities such as Turn2Us and EntitledTo have simple to use online benefits calculators to help you understand if a switch to Universal Credit may be worth it.

If you get more from tax credits – stick with it for now, at least until they're replaced by Universal Credit by 2024.

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