Ұлыбритания жұмыс істейтін азаматтарға арналған жәрдемақысы

State benefit in the UK, introduced in April 2003

Working Tax Credit (WTC) is a state benefit in the United Kingdom made to people who work and receive a low income. It was introduced in April 2003 and is a means tested benefit. Despite the name, tax credits are not to be confused with tax credits linked to a person's tax bill, because they are used to top up low wages. Unlike most other benefits, it is paid by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). WTC can be claimed by working individuals, childless couples and working families with dependent children. In addition, people may also be entitled to Child Tax Credit (CTC) if they are responsible for any children. WTC and CTC are assessed jointly and families remain eligible for CTC even if where no adult is working or they have too much income to receive WTC. In 2010, the coalition government announced that the Working Tax Credit would, by 2017, be integrated into and replaced by Universal Credit. However, implementation of this has been repeatedly delayed and will not be finished until 2024 at the earliest. Since 2018, no new claims can be made for Working Tax Credit, they must be made for Universal Credit.

The WTC replaced the Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC), which operated from April 1999 until March 2003. The WFTC was itself a transitional system from the earlier benefit for working families known as Family Credit (FC), which had been in operation since 1986. The WFTC shared its assessment of means and period of renewal (6 months) with FC but moved towards a tax credit approach styled on schemes in other countries, which used an annual declaration of income to assess entitlement for a whole year. Tax credits also replaced the child elements in means tested benefits, the Children's Tax Credit in the tax system, and disabled persons tax credit. In 2014 WTC and CTC combined distributed £30 billion per year.

WTC and CTC for the current tax year are considered to be an interim award because they are based on the previous tax year's gross household income. Final awards would need to be adjusted in subsequent years when the actual income is known. Since large fluctuations from year to year would be undesirable, broad allowance is made for this by disregarding the first £2,500 of any increase in the final income from one year to the next. Only changes in excess of this income disregard are taken into account in establishing a final award. Overpayments are recovered by adjustment to the amount of the following years' interim award. Tax credits have not proved to be nearly as robust or well administered as the initial design envisaged. Claimants have not always recognised the need to report any change of circumstances immediately. The time taken by the system of administration to then take these into account adds to any overpayment generated and shortens the time available for their recovery. This led to significant levels of overpayments. In order to reduce the overpayment problem, the income disregard was raised tenfold from £2,500 to £25,000 with effect from 2006/07.

Around 7 million people in the UK were entitled to claim Working Tax Credit or the companion Child Tax Credit, although around 2 million people do not do so. The levels of Tax Credit take up in the UK have not risen in recent years, despite an increase of 100,000 children living in households classed as "below the poverty line" between 2004 and 2005.

The introduction of the Working Tax Credit scheme was marred by implementation issues and large scale overpayments. The Office for National Statistics estimated that of the £13.5bn paid out in tax credits in 2004, £1.9bn consisted of overpayments. In addition, computer problems led to delays in many receiving payments, causing significant financial hardship for those on low incomes, and resulting in EDS losing its contract to provide the Inland Revenue with computer services. These problems led to considerable political fallout. Dawn Primarolo, who as Paymaster General was the minister responsible for the implementation of tax credits, had to apologise to parliament and was asked whether she had "lost control" of her department. Prime Minister Tony Blair also apologised to Parliament over the incident. The Labour Party claimed that the tax credit system was effective in tackling child poverty, with, by their government's definitions, 2 million children lifted out of absolute poverty and almost 1 million out of relative poverty by 2007. However, the subsequent Coalition government sought to redefine poverty so as to highlight "children living in workless households or those with drug dependent parents", despite their tax credit incomes, remaining in poverty. Even with the previous definition, this government claimed that the existing tax credits system failed to "meet its statutory target to halve the problem by 2010 – despite the huge amount of taxpayers’ money spent on tackling it."