TCTM02458 - Entitlement: WTC entitlement - Qualifying remunerative work

Term time and seasonal workers - yearly cycle of work

The Working Tax Credit (Entitlement and Maximum Rate) Regulation 7(1)

Where a recognised yearly cycle of work exists and the person works at a school, educational establishment, or other place of employment on a seasonal basis, exclude from the calculation of normal working hours, any periods of school holidays or similar vacations when the person does no work.

To calculate the normal weekly hours worked by a person who has a yearly cycle use the number of hours normally worked, or that the claimant expects to work during the term or during the period of seasonal work.

This regulation enables people working in schools, other educational establishments or other places of employment (such as the Civil service) where term time working is available to continue to receive WTC during school holidays, or holidays which are broadly similar to school holidays, by taking these periods out of the calculation of normal working hours. It is not intended to cover other “seasonal workers”, for example:

• A man usually does 35 hours seasonal work a week for 3 months each summer. He can claim WTC during the 3-month period, but when he finishes this seasonal work, his WTC will stop, unless he gets another job within a week of finishing TCTM02470. He cannot get WTC until the next period in which his usual hours of work are high enough for him to qualify again.