[2025] UKUT 166 (AAC)

In RS (No.2) the Upper Tribunal considered the application of Article 7(6) of the No.23 Order to an individual, RS, who had a tax credits award in 2018/2019 and was treated as having claimed, and an initial decision was made awarding, tax credits in respect of 2019/2020. RS then applied for TFC in June 2019, which brought the tax credits award to an end pursuant to s.30 of the 2014 Act. On 1 August 2019, RS attempted to claim tax credits. The Upper Tribunal held that RS could not do so because a claim made part way through a tax year could not be a claim “for the next tax year”. This was because:

a tax year runs from 6 April in one calendar year to 5 April in the following year (s.48 of the TCA 2002, which applies to relevant subordinate legislation by virtue of s.11 of the Interpretation Act 1978)

Article 7(6) of the No.23 Order makes a distinction between the previous award (which must have been made “in respect of a tax year”) and the new claim (which must have been “for the next tax year”)

the phrase “for the next tax year” involves a reference to the next tax year as a whole, from 6 April in one year to 5 April in the following year, and not to a part tax year. This is consistent with both the statutory wording and the underlying policy intent

as to the wording, if the draftsman had wanted to include within the scope of Article 7(6) tax credits claims which were made in year, and for part of a current tax year, it would have been straightforward to do so (e.g. “a claim for that tax credit for the next tax year or part of that tax year”, cf. ss. 3(1) and 17 of the TCA 2002)

as for the policy intent, the purposes of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 include the replacement of tax credits (and other means-tested legacy benefits) by Universal Credit. Transitional protection typically has the effect that a claimant remains on an “old” benefit until that person ceases to satisfy the relevant entitlement conditions, at which point the individual must make a claim for the “new” benefit (or not at all). It is consistent with this approach that