Guidance

New one-off £500 payment for working households receiving tax credits

Find out more about the coronavirus (COVID-19) support scheme for working households receiving tax credits and your eligibility.

This guidance was withdrawn on

For information on the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) support available, read: Find out what support you can get if you’re affected by coronavirus.

If you’re part of a working household that receives tax credits, you may be eligible for a new one-off payment of £500. The new payment is being introduced to provide extra support when the temporary increase in Working Tax Credit ends as planned on 5 April 2021.

You may get a one-off, tax-free payment of £500 if, on 2 March 2021, you were getting either:

  • Working Tax Credit
  • Child Tax Credit and were eligible for Working Tax Credit but you did not get a payment because your income is too high to get Working Tax Credit payments

You do not need to contact HMRC or apply for the payment. HMRC will contact you by text message or letter in April to confirm you are eligible.

If you are eligible, you should get your payment direct to your bank account by 23 April 2021. The payment will appear in your bank statement as ‘HMRC C19 support’. You will not see the payment on the online tax credit service.

The payment is non-taxable and will not affect your benefits. You do not need to declare it as income for Self Assessment tax returns or for tax credit claims and renewals.

You can find out if you currently receive Working Tax Credit.

Published 3 March 2021
Last updated 28 April 2021 + show all updates
  1. The payment will appear in bank statements as 'HMRC C19 support'. The deadline to tell HMRC if you have changed your bank details was 8 April 2021, the link for how to do this has been removed.

  2. Welsh translation added.

  3. Updated to clarify that the payment is non-taxable and will not affect benefits. It does not need to be declared as income for Income Tax Self Assessment or for tax credit claims and renewals. If you want to change your bank details, you must do this by 8 April.

  4. First published.