Help with tax credits overpayment

Coolmum66

Hi all - have looked around and cannot see this info - apologies if I have missed it.

I received a letter today dated the 5th May - referring to a letter dated 27 Aug 07 teling me that my claim for the year to April 2005 was being reviewed. Basically TC say there is an overpayment of £800 from 04-05. Tax credits have taken from Aug 07 till now to decide I have to pay this back. I am sure I have already received a leter frm them saying this has been sorted - but now can't find it. Overpayment relates to differences in my declared wages and then from renewal at year end - when my Father was seriously ill and my head was all over the place

Are there any time limits relating to overpayments?? eg: how many tax years can they reasonably go back, and how long can they reasonably take to make a decision??

Sorry if this doesn't make much sense - am tired, upset and very worried!

Thanks for any help

di3004

Coolmum66 wrote: »

Hi all - have looked around and cannot see this info - apologies if I have missed it.

I received a letter today dated the 5th May - referring to a letter dated 27 Aug 07 teling me that my claim for the year to April 2005 was being reviewed. Basically TC say there is an overpayment of £800 from 04-05. Tax credits have taken from Aug 07 till now to decide I have to pay this back. I am sure I have already received a leter frm them saying this has been sorted - but now can't find it. Overpayment relates to differences in my declared wages and then from renewal at year end - when my Father was seriously ill and my head was all over the place

Are there any time limits relating to overpayments?? eg: how many tax years can they reasonably go back, and how long can they reasonably take to make a decision??

Sorry if this doesn't make much sense - am tired, upset and very worried!

Thanks for any help

Hi there

I would ask if they any information going back the last few years on their database.

Wonder if there is a sort of letter for this, like a subject access request (SAR), where they must supply copies of everything they hold on you on your account.

If you think you already been through this before, tell them, and they should check this out.

I'm sure others on here will be able to give some advice in this matter for you.
Good luck and hope it resolves.;)

di3004

Check this thread out here also:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1166

Coolmum66

Di - thanks so much for the thread - have bookmarked it and will read it all today.

Thanks again for your reply.

Coolmum. xx

kazzah

cool mum
WHAT A CO-INCIDENCE!!!
I had EXACTLY the same letter ( same amount of overpayment ) in response to the Aug 07 letter at the begininng of December 08
I had already had huge problems with my TC claims and wrote to the TCO and pointed out that I had a letter signed by the director of the TCO in Novemebr 05 saying all overpayments were being written off as it was the fault of the TCO there was an overpayment
I received a reply from the TCO in January saying that the letter had been for "information purposes" only
what a shame they could put that IN THE LETTER to avoid my blood pressure going any higher!
hope you are sorted now

johnsmiffy

Your tax credits award for 2003-2004 and/or 2004-2005
My wife and I also received a letter dated 28 August 2007. It was when the Government/HMRS realised that there had been an error with the 2003/04 and 2004/05 Tax Credit payments and calculations. The text of the letter was as follows:

Your tax credits award for 2003-2004 and/or 2004-2005.

We have identified an administrative problem that means we have to review a small proportion of tax credit awards for earlier years. In the past, we revised a small number of awards, in light of new information, after the award had been finalised at the end of the year. We have discovered that in certain cases we did not follow the correct procedure. This letter is just to make you aware that yours is one of the cases where we need to check the tax credits award for 2003-2004 and/or 2004-2005.

However, we would like to reassure you that this review will not lead to your tax credits awards being reduced or to us asking for any more payments for these earlier years. You do not need to do anything as a result of this letter; we just wanted to keep you updated. We will write to you to confirm when we have completed our work on your award.

As said above, this will not affect your previous awards

HMRC Letter Ref. TC954 HMRC 07/7

I think the important thing to remember here is the last sentence "...will not affect your previous awards."

We had a reply to this in November 2008 stating that no action was needed on our tax credits.

Hope this helps.