Six days to go to the tax credits deadline – don’t miss out

Renew your tax credits by 31 July, warns HM Revenue & Customs

With just under a week to go, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is urging more than 222,600 tax credits recipients to renew their claims before 31 July deadline.

People are being warned not to leave their renewal until the last minute and risk their payments being stopped. They can do it any time - day or night - through HMRC’s online services, including the HMRC App.

Tax credits help working families with targeted financial support and more than 363,000 people have already renewed ahead of the deadline.

Myrtle Lloyd, HMRC’s Director General for Customer Services, said: “The 31 July 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.

“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.”

Once tax credits recipients have completed their renewal, they can use their online account to check its progress and find out when they will hear back from HMRC.

If there is a change in circumstances that could affect their tax credits, they must report the changes to HMRC.

These include changes to:

• living arrangements
• childcare
• working hours, or
• income (increase or decrease).

Customers choosing to use the HMRC app on their smartphone can:

• renew their tax credits
• make changes to their claim
• check their tax credits payments schedule, and
• find out how much they have earned for the year

Tax credits are ending and will be replaced by Universal Credit by the end of 2024. Some people who move from tax credits to Universal Credit could be financially better off and can use an independent benefits calculator to check.

If people choose to apply sooner, it is important to get independent advice beforehand as they will not be able to go back to tax credits or any other benefits that Universal Credit replaces.