Personal

There are special rules under the Tenancy Deposit Scheme that limits the amount of deposit that landlords in England can request. There are also further limitations on what landlords and agents can charge tenants.

If you are renting a residential property you may have to pay a deposit before you move in.

The maximum deposit your landlord can ask for is:

• up to 5 weeks’ rent if the rent for the year is less than £50,000 
• up to 6 weeks’ rent if the rent for the year is £50,000 or more

They can also ask for a holding deposit to reserve a property. This can be up to one week’s rent.

If you are unable to afford the deposit, you may qualify for help from your local council. The council can tell you if you are eligible for:

• rent or deposit guarantee schemes;
• a discretionary housing payment if you get Housing Benefit or Universal Credit;
• local schemes to prevent homelessness; and
• if you are receiving certain benefits you may also be able to get a Budgeting Loan, or a Budgeting Advance if you are receiving Universal Credit.

In England, your landlord must keep your deposit safe using a government-approved tenancy deposit protection scheme if both of the following apply:

• you have an assured shorthold tenancy (AST); or
• your landlord took your deposit on or after 6 April 2007.

The changes to the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) announced as part of the Spring Budget came into effect on 6 April 2024. The income threshold at which HICBC starts to be charged has been increased from £50,000 to £60,000.

The HICBC is charged at the rate of 1% of the full Child Benefit award for each £200 (2023-24: £100) of income of the highest wage earner between £60,000 and £80,000. (2023-24: between £50,000 and £60,000). For taxpayers with income above £80,000 (2023-24: £60,000) the amount of the charge will equal the amount of Child Benefit received. The HICBC therefore either reduces or removes the financial benefit of receiving child benefit.

The increase in the HICBC threshold is expected to have a positive impact for around 485,000 families. Going forward, the government intends to administer the HICBC on a household rather than individual basis, but this move is expected to take until at least April 2026 to implement and may or may not be changed following the announced general election.

For new Child Benefit claims made after 6 April 2024, any backdated payment will be treated for HICBC purposes as if the entitlement fell in the 2024-25 tax year – if backdating would otherwise create a HICBC liability in the 2023-24 tax year.

If the HICBC applies to you or your partner it is usually worthwhile to continue your claim for Child Benefit for your child, as it can help to protect certain benefits and will make sure your child receives a National Insurance number. However, you still have the choice to keep receiving child benefit and pay the tax charge, or you can elect to stop receiving Child Benefit and not pay the charge.

HMRC’s Childcare account can be used to claim free childcare (if eligible) or pay for Tax-Free Childcare. HMRC’s sign in page for the account states that in order ‘…to keep getting free childcare or Tax-Free Childcare, you must sign in every 3 months and confirm your details are up to date’.

There are various eligibility rules that must be met to claim free childcare via the Childcare Account. As a starting point you must be the parents of a child two, three or four years old and living in England. From September 2024, the scheme will be extended for children of working parents from the age of 9 months. You can apply from 12 May 2024. There are different schemes in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The Childcare Account can also be used to claim under the Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) scheme. The TFC scheme can help parents of children aged up to 11 years old (17 for those with certain disabilities). The TFC scheme helps support working families with their childcare costs. There are many registered childcare providers including childminders, breakfast and after school clubs and approved play schemes signed up across the UK. Parents can pay into their account regularly and save up their TFC allowance to use during school holidays. 

The TFC scheme provides for a government top-up on parental contributions. For every £8 contributed by parents an additional £2 top up payment will be funded by Government up to a maximum total of £10,000 per child per year. This will give parents an annual childcare savings of up to £2,000 per child (and up to £4,000 for disabled children until the age of 17). 

The TFC scheme is open to all qualifying parents including the self-employed and those on a minimum wage. The scheme is also available to parents on paid sick leave as well as those on paid and unpaid statutory maternity, paternity and adoption leave. In order to be eligible to use the scheme, parents will have to be in work at least 16 hours per week and earn at least the National Minimum Wage or Living Wage. If either parent earns more than £100,000, both parents are unable to use the scheme.

New legislation, including three Government backed cross party Acts, came into force from 6 April 2024.

Pregnant women and new parents will now receive special treatment in a redundancy situation, as a suite of new laws are introduced – delivering the Government’s plan to support families and back hardworking Brits.

New laws will protect workers by strengthening existing redundancy protections to cover pregnancy and a period of time after parents return to work.

The Government-backed package of Acts will also boost support to vulnerable workers offering greater flexibility and confidence to workers and businesses – to help galvanise productivity, help grow the economy and tackle inactivity.

Families will receive new employment protections, including redundancy protections for pregnant women and new parents and a new leave entitlement for unpaid carers. In addition, there will be new flexible paternity leave and pay for parents of babies due on or after 6 April 2024. 

Against a backdrop of skills and labour shortages, these measures will help businesses to attract and retain talented staff. The measures also support groups more likely to fall out of the workforce, such as parents and disabled people, enabling them to thrive in the workplace.

Earlier this month, saw the 10^th anniversary of the StepChange Debt Charity’s annual Debt Awareness Week. This is designed to shine a spotlight on the causes of problem debt.

The focus on this year's campaign is looking at the main barriers to getting debt advice. This includes understanding that many people can take too long to get the help they need because they:

• Don’t understand what debt advice is and how it works;
• Are dealing with anxiety, stress or a mental health condition;
• Are worried about my credit file;
• Never have enough time to get debt advice; or
• Feel ashamed and do not want their loved ones to find out.

It is important to be aware that there are various options available to help people who have serious debts that they cannot pay. Insolvency solutions include bankruptcy, Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) and Debt Relief Orders (DROs).

A senior leader within the bankruptcy and Debt Relief Order teams at the Insolvency Service has the following usual advice:

‘The first step for people who are struggling to pay off their debts is to seek free, regulated debt advice. They will identify the solution that is best for them. 

Sometimes this will be a formal solution, like bankruptcy or a Debt Relief Order. But a regulated debt adviser will make sure that whatever people decide will be the right solution for them. 

Your first step is picking up the phone, getting on webchat or visiting a debt advice office, and having that conversation.’

The rent-a-room scheme is a set of special rules designed to help homeowners who rent-a-room in their home to create a valuable tax free income stream. If you are using this scheme, you should ensure that rents received from lodgers during the current tax year do no exceed £7,500. The tax exemption is automatic if you earn less than £7,500 and there are no specific tax reporting requirements. Homeowners can opt out of the scheme and record property income and expenses as usual if this is beneficial.

The relief applies to the letting of furnished accommodation and is used when a bedroom is rented out to a lodger by homeowners in their home. The relief simplifies the tax and administrative burden for those with rent-a-room income up to £7,500. The limit is reduced by half if the income from letting accommodation in the same property is shared by a joint owner of the property.

The rent-a-room limit includes any amounts received for meals, goods and services provided, such as cleaning or laundry. If gross receipts are more than the limit taxpayers can choose between paying tax on the actual profit (gross rents minus actual expenses and capital allowances) or the gross receipts (and any balancing charges) minus the allowance – with no deduction for expenses or capital allowances.

The Cost of Living support package has been designed to help over 8 million households in receipt of means tested benefits. The details of Cost of Living Payments due in the 2023-24 tax year were published in 2023 and have recently been updated with details of the final payment.

Eligible recipients will receive up to 3 Cost of Living Payments of £301, £300 and £299 during the course of the current tax-year. This includes those receiving pension credit and these payments will be made separately from other benefit payments. The first payment of £301 was made between April-May 2023 and the second payment of £300 was paid during August-September 2023.

The third payment of £299 was due to be paid in spring 2024. It was confirmed that 700,000 families who receive tax credits and no other qualifying benefits would receive their £299 Cost of Living Payment between 16 and 22 February 2024. 

In addition, more than 7 million eligible UK households have already received their £299 payments directly from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), these payments were made between 6 and 22 February 2024.

The payment from HMRC to tax credits customers will appear on bank statements as ‘HMRC COLS’, referencing Cost of Living Support. Those receiving the payment from DWP will see the payment reference as their National Insurance number followed by ‘DWP COL’.

The 31st of January is a key date for those of us who are registered for self-assessment. There are three deadlines:

1. The closing date to file your 2022-23 tax return without incurring an initial £100 late filing penalty.
2. The date by which any balance of tax, NIC, or student loan payback needs to be made for 2022-23.
3. Due date for making the first payment on account for 2023-24.

What to do if you cannot afford to make these payments

HMRC will allow taxpayers who cannot meet these tax payments by 31^st of January, to spread the cost by applying for a formal HMRC payment plan.

The instructions posted on the GOV.uk website are reproduced below:

Setting up a payment plan

To set up a payment plan you will need:

• the relevant reference number for the tax you cannot pay, such as your unique tax reference number;
• your UK bank account details – you must be authorised to set up a Direct Debit; and
• details of any previous payments you have missed.

You may be able to set up a payment plan online, depending on which type of tax you owe and how much you owe.

If you owe tax from self-assessment

You can set up a self-assessment payment plan online if you:

• have filed your latest tax return;
• owe £30,000 or less;
• are within 60 days of the payment deadline; and
• do not have any other payment plans or debts with HMRC.

HMRC will ask you about your income and spending when you set up your plan.

HMRC is reminding parents that they may be eligible for Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) to help pay for childcare costs. The scheme was used by almost 650,000 families during the 2022-23 tax year. This represented a significant increase over the previous year.

The TFC scheme can help parents of children aged up to 11 years old. The TFC scheme helps support working families with their childcare costs. There are many registered childcare providers including childminders, breakfast and after school clubs and approved play schemes signed up across the UK. Parents can pay into their account regularly and save up their TFC allowance to use during school holidays. 

The TFC scheme provides for a government top-up on parental contributions. For every £8 contributed by parents an additional £2 top up payment will be funded by Government up to a maximum total of £10,000 per child per year. This will give parents an annual savings of up to £2,000 per child (and up to £4,000 for disabled children until the 1 September following their 16th birthday) in childcare costs. 

The TFC scheme is open to all qualifying parents including the self-employed and those on a minimum wage. The scheme is also available to parents on paid sick leave as well as those on paid and unpaid statutory maternity, paternity and adoption leave. In order to be eligible to use the scheme parents will have to be in work at least 16 hours per week and earn at least the National Minimum Wage or Living Wage. If either parent earns more than £100,000, both parents are unable to use the scheme. The scheme is also not available if the parents or carers are in receipt of tax credits, Universal Credit or childcare vouchers.

HMRC has confirmed that plans to extend the Help to Save scheme by 18 months, until April 2025 have been confirmed.

The Help to Save scheme is intended to help those on low incomes to boost their savings. Eligible users of the scheme can save between £1 and £50 every calendar month and receive a 50% government bonus. The 50% bonus is payable at the end of the second and fourth years and is based on how much account holders have saved. The bonus is paid directly into the account holder’s chosen bank account.

This means that account holders on low incomes can receive a maximum bonus of up to £1,200 on savings of £2,400 for 4 years from the date the account is opened. The scheme is open to most working people who receive Working Tax Credits or Universal Credit.

Almost 360,000 people have opened Help to Save accounts since the scheme was launched in September 2018 and an additional 3 million individuals could still benefit from the savings scheme as a result of the extension.

The government also published a consultation on the scheme that is looking at how the scheme can be reformed and simplified.