childcare overpayment

mca1234

Can anyone help me i stopped using my childminder in august i wrote to to the tax credits and told them this however they have still been putting the money into my bank account i called them yesterday and told them this the ladie on the phone said they never received the letter im in such a panic now as im worried that this will be classed as fraud.Please could someone give me advice i think they are going to stop the payments now well i hope they do.i never slept last night worrying about it

mitchaa

Its now November so you have received payments, August/Sept/Oct and November. Why has it taken you 4 months? When Septembers payment was paid, you should have been straight on the phone sorting it out?

Anyway, i suspect you have put this additional income into a savings account for when they ask for it back?

I hope you have not spent it, otherwise it will become a much bigger problem for you with probably weeks worths of not sleeping..

cw18

The notes actually say they will continue to pay for 4 weeks after childcare costs go down, so the OP could have expected to receive payments for the first month afterwards. But I wouldn't have left it this late to chase up -- though I have to admit I've always made ALL changes by phone rather than post, as I've had too many letters (in and out) go missing over the last few years Anything important (like my son's EMA application) I send by recorded mail.

astonsmummy

Why did you not just phone them?
Childcare is paid for an extra 4 weeks, although I by chance phoned on the 4th week to see what my payments were being reduced to and they hadn't actioned it to stop, but I didnt get an overpayment they just stoped it there and then.

nottslass_2

mitchaa wrote: »

Its now November so you have received payments, August/Sept/Oct and November. Why has it taken you 4 months? When Septembers payment was paid, you should have been straight on the phone sorting it out?

Anyway, i suspect you have put this additional income into a savings account for when they ask for it back?

I hope you have not spent it, otherwise it will become a much bigger problem for you with probably weeks worths of not sleeping..

Isn't this a little harsh ?

After all the Tco is not known for its speed and efficiency when replying to its customers - if the o/p had informed the TCO of her change of circumstances at the end of Aug,it was only left about 8 weeks before she chased it up !!! A much shorter time scale than the 18 months it took to action an underpayment owed to myself !!!!

mitchaa

nottslass wrote: »

Isn't this a little harsh ?

After all the Tco is not known for its speed and efficiency when replying to its customers - if the o/p had informed the TCO of her change of circumstances at the end of Aug,it was only left about 8 weeks before she chased it up !!! A much shorter time scale than the 18 months it took to action an underpayment owed to myself !!!!

If you read my 2nd last paragraph, i state ''I suspect you have put this additional income into a savings account''

So there should be no worries then. Any sensible person will have saved these overpayments

I mean you wouldn't spend additional money if your employer made a mistake and paid your wages into your bank account twice, same goes for benefit payments i would have thought?

If the O.P has spent this additional for some unknown reason (Why?) then it is a cause for concern as she will need to pay it back or as a result her tax credits for the next few months may stop completely in order to pay these extra payments back. If the O.P relies on this, then that would cause cause for concern especially over xmas.

Like i said, i suspect the O.P will have banked this additional money as she was aware it was not right from August. If she has then, there is absoloutely nothing to worry about

I think i am just stating the obvious result of this situation here.

nottslass_2

mca1234 wrote: »

Can anyone help me i stopped using my childminder in august i wrote to to the tax credits and told them this however they have still been putting the money into my bank account i called them yesterday and told them this the ladie on the phone said they never received the letter im in such a panic now as im worried that this will be classed as fraud.Please could someone give me advice i think they are going to stop the payments now well i hope they do.i never slept last night worrying about it

While you remember,write down the date and time you phoned them,just in case you need to refer back to it at a later date.

I think that they will now recalculate your award and divide the payments that they still owe you,from your award, over the rest of the financial year,less the extra child care money you've received.
Although your money will go down ,the repayment will effectively be repaid over what is left of the financial year. we are currently on week 31 of the financial year,so if you divide the amount of extra money you received by the 21 weeks that are left,you should get a rough estimate of what you'll loose.


Hope this helps

System

Don't panic about the overpayments, you still have a tax credit claim and as long as it is live and running they can recover any overpayment by reducing your monthly payments. Also fraud is when you get caught out claiming something you knew you are not entitled too yet continued to do. Once you realised the problem you notified TCO and they adjusted your claim.

For those who who criticise there are many people (I used to be one of them) who don't keep as close an eye on what goes into their bank account as they should do and that can cause a problem like this where there is a delay in realising you are receiving more than you should. I don't know if this is what happened to the OP but it can happen and the fact that the OP rang TCO and is on here asking advice shows they are worried and want to remedy the problem.