Tax credit overpayment- advice required!

wayne

i,ve just recieved letter telling my i was overpaid by 4 grand in 2004.now they want payment in full.i cant afford that not even monthly payments to be honest.surely if it,s their mistake they shouldn,t be able to claim it back.also where have they been for the last two years that they couldn,t tell me this before.this has me so wound up that my wifes best friend(who works in local tax office)has just been told to f--k off and not bother calling here again.childish i know but felt good at the time.

CIS

How did you get over apid ?, if was for something that you should have spotted or realised, then you have very little chance of getting it written off. If it was in complete faith, on advice you received from the TCO, then you have more of a chance.

wayne

i was over paid i think due to changing my job half way through the year i informed the tax office but they said that the allowence runs for 12 months so i would carry on getting it coz it was based on last years earnings

fannyadams

Ok here's my story
I have 2 children and I have always told the CTC people when I change job or change childcare or change salary or anything else that they want to know, and even some stuff that they didin't need to know i told them everything.
So there I was in April 2004 and I rang them to say I was on maternity leave and that my DS#1 was going to playgroup and this was costing £xx. some numpty at their end decided I had given up work and so within 7 days I got £3K in my bank account - Their fault not mine so I called them and they said "well we don't have the ability to take back that kind of money and I certainly wouldn't recommend sendign in a cheque for that amount to us,it'd go missing I guarentee it!" "you put into one of those high interest savings account and we'll contact you to tell you when we want it back" So that's what I did. The in July I got a letter from them that suggested that they'd taken into account the overpayment and it was Ok coz they would just give me some money dunno how much it was about £50 per week or summat like that. Anyways, they never explained their working out or anything so I thought right they know I got the money and they aren't gonna take it back _ i'll spend it! so I did. wiring and heating for my little house.
Then they stopped my CTC about 1 month after I went back to work :eek: with DS#2 in nursery full time and DS#1 at childminder before and after school so i'm shelling out about 80% of my salary on childcare and really really need the CTC to top up my money so we can eat and stuff.
NOTE to SAHMs - Don't give me any grief over this I don't wanna hear it!
Anyway I had a huge debt coz they took away my money and I am on my fourth appeal. A mate oif mine works for the HMRC and even she doesn't know how the CTC is worked out and she's got some fancy qualification in money!
They are still claiming back the money and they still can't get it right (apparently they say I have 3 children but I've only EVER told them about DS#1 & DS#2) I call them and tell them about every change I ever made to childcare/working/salary everything and they still !!!! it up - what can I do aside from keep appealing?

Amanda65

We are in a similar situation in that my OH was made redundant and we were advised to claim WTC, whcih we did and during the time he was out of work we were paid £469.00. When he got another job we informed them imemdiately and payments stopped, but at the end of the 2003/2004 tax year received a letter asking for all the money they had paid back as with his new job and redundancy payments we were now over the limit for the year. I rang and explained that we couldn't pay it back in one go and was told not to worry as they would reclaim it back through my OH's tax code during 2004/2005, which we assumed that had done as we didn't hear anything more other than letters every so often saying that our entitlement was now nil.

Sadly my OH was made redundant again last September so I contacted WTC people and asked about a claim, giving them our P60 info from 2004/2005 as they requested. We could not claim as between us we had earnt too much and was advised not to put in a claim for the current year as we would probably be in the same position as before and have to pay back any moines claimed if my OH got back into work during the tax year (which he did). There was no mention of any monies outstanding at this stage!

Last week however we received a letter from the IR saying this £469 was still outstanding and if we didn't pay up they would take legal proceedings! The gentleman I spoke to said that there was no way they could claim money back through a tax code - so why were we told it would happen - and finally offered to send me a payment book so they can have it back in instalments. Guess we can't get out of paying it but am furious that it has taken so long to come to light - his excuse was that they were a bit behind!!!!! Any other company with backlogs to this extent would be out of business

callansdad

WTC told me last year that i was overpaid by £1500 over the past few years. The letter stated in order to prevent hardship they would keep on paying me but a slightly reduced amount so it would then be paid back bit by bit but i had already gotten all that i was entitled too last year, cheeky beggars. They should have written "We will keep paying you and even though it will be a little bit less we will still be putting you into unwanted debt!"

I called them and told them to stick their payments where the sun doesn't shine. I would rather do without than get into more debt. Because i had already received all the payments i was entitled to for the past year i think that this next year i will still get damn all as the money will only start getting paid back.

I hate the TC system, its such a farce. I cried bucketloads when i got in my statement. I have always informed them of any change and my statements always seemed to be right.

I'm not sure what will happen this year though. Do i still put in my claim even though i know that i am owe them money as they will need to know how much i should have gotten this year. But what if they start paying me again. My head hurts now lol.

Im sorry that i can't help any of the ops on here. TC is just a scam and i can't see how their system works, its a joke.

SamMoffatt28

I phoned the tax credits helpline and asked for an appeals form. When it arrived I filled it in stating that if they checked their records they would see that I had in fact given them the correct information that they asked for (p60 from previous years earnings) I warned them that it would not be accurate as hubby had just started a new higher paying job. They said it didnt matter and based our award on these figures. As soon as I got the award letter (it stated that I must inform them if we earned more than the amount the award was based on), I went straight down to my local tax office with all the relevant pay slips and told them. I also had £900 of the overpayment still in my bank account and offered to give it back. I was told to keep the money and our award would be adjusted accordingly. 3 months later no change. The next April when our new award was sent they had cut my money by over £30 p/w to cover the overpayment. With 4 young kids this was crippling me.
So anyway I sent off the appeal form and didnt hear anything for ages. I had just about given up when out of the blue I got a letter stating that the mistake was theirs and they were very sorry for the inconveince I had suffered. My money was increased by £30 which they had previously taken as overpayment. Then the next day I got another letter with a Giro in it for almost £1000 (almost a years overpayments paid back to me) with another apologetic letter!!!

So, it does take a while and it is a pain in the butt but it is worth it!!!

pammy14

Another lreply from Tax office saying exactly the same- They do not accept form must have been lost or that it was difficult to know you are being overpaid when the same amount is being paid into bank and earnings have not changed, seems quite plain to me .

He has been to MP who has now written to them but dont hold out much hope. How can people with family pay back all this money when thy are on low wage. also when tax return is done annually as SE person why dont diff departments of revenue communicate with each other then they can see exactly what has been earnt that year. This is a Giant fiasco!!

donnalove

ask for copies of your telephone conversations,from dates 1st of the year till end, i got 6 cd's last week which proves my case and they are now gonna listen to conversations.
why they couldnt in the first place is beyond me.

System

Yes Donnalove you would think in this day of modern technology it would be as simple as that but the staff who deal with overpayment cases don't have access to the recorded telephone calls yet though I understand that is supposed to be coming online soon.

I don't know if it's widely known but if you call the TCO the call is automatically recorded but if whomever you speak to doesn't leave a written note on the system the next person you talk to will have no idea what is going on as there will be nothing for them to refer to. The CSA computer system, on the otherhand, logs all calls on their contact log and even if the person you talk to does not leave a written note there will be an inbound call logged as proof that you called previously.

HTH