Tax credit overpayment and inheritance

sarah6916

Hi

I hope that someone can help. I am currently in dispute regarding a tax credit overpayment of £7k however my partner is set to inherit approximately £20k, sadly his Grandmother passed away very recently. My question is that if he has this in an account will the Tax Credit people be able to take this if my appeal fails. We have a joint mortgage on our house although he was not with me at the time of the 'so called' overpayment and therefore it is nothing to do with him.

Hope someone can help.

Many Thanks

Sarah

System

If the overpayment is for a single claim only in your name then it has nothing whatsoever to do with your partner and TCO would never approach him to repay the money.

JOHNSTONE1

I dont think they would be able to touch it if it was a single claim though if it was a joint one it wouldnt suprise me! Do you mind me asking how they manage to overpay you 7k?? I cant believe how badley they mess up!

krisskross

JOHNSTONE1 wrote: »

I dont think they would be able to touch it if it was a single claim though if it was a joint one it wouldnt suprise me! Do you mind me asking how they manage to overpay you 7k?? I cant believe how badley they mess up!

May not be their mess up. I believe that it can be the applicants fault.

JOHNSTONE1

yes of course it can be the applicants fault, though as she's disputing it i presumed it was their mess up. I have been overpaid several times despite constantly updating them on evey asspect of my life... none of it makes any sense to me!!

Claire79

Hi Sarah,

I too was overpaid. When I spoke to them I was told to either pay the whole amount in full or I could pay it over 12 months. When I told them that I wasn't working and I was on maternity leave they said they would need to do a household expenditure form. When I explained that my partner was not with me at the time of the overpayment (and not until over a year after) they said that didn't matter as we are a household now. It stinks.

kei_2

To be fair I've dealt with thousands of overpayment disputes and with hand on my heart can say the vast majority were the claimants fault or at least partly.

Mostly are due too people being ignorant or not understanding the system, the amount of people who think getting there MP involved can cover there negligence is amusing. If you have a look at the financial ombudsmen report for the last financial year the majority of rulings in regards to overpayments were in HMRC favour and it goes up yearly by the looks of things, well it should as the system matures.

Call me extremely narrow minded as unless I'm extremely reckless i will always have a comfortable living with no thought of overhanging debts but having been brought up with dual nationality - my parents are foreign - i for one know a lot of democratic societies do not have anything that comes close too what we call our welfare system so it peeves me when people show a clear ignorance too the system 'oh i don't have time read all that paperwork' used to come up all the time.

Certainly the system is nowhere near as efficient as it could be, there is no disputing that but surely if you're claiming benefits it's up to you or your appointee to understand the system.

Just to echo what others have said, your partners earnings should be irrelevant for your previous single claim.

System

I too have dealt with many overpayment disputes and yes many were entirely the fault of the claimant but I think the system in the early years was dreadful for some claimants especially the poorer ones who had higher awards. Remember, and I don't mean this to sound patronising, but many of the poorer claimants are also the least well educated. If tax credit staff have to have several weeks training to learn the basics of the system how do you expect those claimants to understand it.

Back in the early days there was only the £2500 disregard compared with todays £25000. There were many people who did advise of increases and decreases in income in that year and 2004/2005. There were numerous award notices to review when processing the dispute. Claimants stuck in the cycle of only being able to get short term contracts of employment or working for agencies regularly had to tell TCO of their changes of circumstances and no-one (including TCO staff) knew the implication of frequent changes in estimated income.

Even in cases were the overpayment was the fault of the claimant I have some sympathy for them. I personally find it quite harsh that claims are terminated when claimants fail to send in their annual declarations on time even though they had plenty of time to do so. I think that after the deadline their payments should be forfeited until they comply. They should not be forced to reapply and asked to repay all the provisional payments which the majority were probably entitled to in the first place.

How on earth can someone who has been on continuously claiming Income Support with 4 kids be expected to repay £4000 just because they didn't send their declaration in on time. Their circumstances haven't changed, all the government is going to do is give them unnecessary worry by hanging a debt over their heads.
Self-employed people get fines when they fail to send in their tax returns on time but they are still allowed to submit it and the fines are remitted if they don't owe any tax for that year.

I think the main problem with the Tax credit system is the fact that it is being administered by a body which spends the majority of it's time collecting money rather than giving it away. Tax credits should have been designed for and incorporated into DWP or SSA.

whitewing

Frankly Kei, I do think you are narrowminded and patronising. It isn't an easy system to understand.