tax credit overpayment bailiff called today help please!!

samanthag

hi all im after some urgent advice
i have an ongoing dispute over tc and today a bailiff called at my house i wasnt in i was in work
i phoned the office when i got home and they want me to pay all 6 grand of it i told her i havent got 6 quid never mind 6 grand so i have to phone her tomorrow with incomings and outgoings
what on earth am i going to do ? i am worried sick he will come back again tonight what are the chances of that ?
i am also not well at the moment and have only just gone back to work this week i suffer with extremely high blood pressure and could really do without this at the moment its gonna make me worse as im worried sick
can somebody help me please
thanks

System

If they are sending out the bailiffs then you must have received some letters from them demanding payment which you failed to respond to. On those letters will be a telephone number through which you can request "Time to pay".

Call them tomorrow and give them a list of your incomings and outgoings and they will negotiate a payment plan with you.

krisskross

Did they get a court judgement against you to be able to send in bailiffs?

suelees1

A lot of private bailiffs think they are above the law and will blatantly lie to you about their powers. If they've not been in the house before they do not have an automatic right to enter your home but can come in through open/unlocked doors and windows. They cannot force entry - ie push past you when the door is open. However bailiffs collecting for HMRC can force entry but they MUST have a magistrates warrant.

A lot of them say they won't accept a payment arrangement and if they say this then ring National Debtline first thing on 0808 808 4000. It's a freephone number and a completely free service.

Don't offer anything more than you can't afford just to keep them off your back.

SomeBozo

suelees1 wrote: »

A lot of private bailiffs think they are above the law and will blatantly lie to you about their powers. If they've not been in the house before they do not have an automatic right to enter your home but can come in through open/unlocked doors and windows. They cannot force entry - ie push past you when the door is open. However bailiffs collecting for HMRC can force entry but they MUST have a magistrates warrant.

A lot of them say they won't accept a payment arrangement and if they say this then ring National Debtline first thing on 0808 808 4000. It's a freephone number and a completely free service.

Don't offer anything more than you can't afford just to keep them off your back.

Back off a minute.

This isn't the local electrical store wanting a few quid for a over stayed parking fine. This is the government wanting money back.

There is no way the OP got into this position without a warning.

The OP must have had phone calls? Letters?

Bozo

brightonman123

check council/benefits office too, to check if bailiff is for real..

£6k seems a lot to leave unresolved.

System

I repeat what I said earlier. There is a specific "Time to Pay" department which negotiates payment plans for TCO. If the outstanding money is due to an overpayment the OP has the right to dispute it. They would still be advised to at least speak to TCO rather than risk bailiffs coming out again. It would also be a good idea to take advice from the CAB, they are excellent in providing support.

TCO are not mind readers, they don't know what your indiviual circumstances are unless you tell them. As far as they are concerned they have not received a response to their correspondence and so the next step in recovering monies owed is to send in the bailiffs.

Angel17

Hi Samantha

We were overpaid a small amount of child tax credits at one time, and in the correspondence we received from the CTC office it stated they would have given us 12 months to pay if we needed it.

I hope you get things sorted out.
Angel

Stephb1986_2

your best asking here there are quite a few people that work for them on here they have even managed to overpay their own staff!!!

http://www.taxcc.org/dispute2.htm
http://www.taxcc.org/index.html

Steph xx

suelees1

SomeBozo wrote: »

Back off a minute.

This isn't the local electrical store wanting a few quid for a over stayed parking fine. This is the government wanting money back.

There is no way the OP got into this position without a warning.

The OP must have had phone calls? Letters?

Bozo

I wasn't suggesting ignoring liability. It was simply advice about some bailiffs. I've had a lot of dealings with very unscrupulous ones who can be very intimidating indeed. If it had been possible to prove they would have had their licences revoked.