Working Tax Credit Overpaid, please help x

creamegg112

My mum has been overpaid on her working tax credit from April 08-April 09. It was their fault by entering incorrect data. My mum wrote she earned 12,800 from that year and received £3000 in the bank, because she wrote the form out correctly she had confidence the money in the bank was correct however it turns out that HMRC had her down as earning £128.00 from the year and put the decimal point in the wrong place.

My mother no longer has this money and i am concerned she will be asked to repay it back immidiately however it was entirely their clerical error and my mum shouldnt have to struggle because of their admin error.

Has this happened to anyone else? was was the outcome? What shall i say in the letter to make them reconsider askingus to pay it in full?
xxxxxxxxxx

krisskross

I think it is your mother's reponsibility to check the award notice and report any discrepancies. So I would assume she will have to repay this money.

Oldernotwiser

Did she keep a copy of her application? Always a good idea in these circumstances.

JOHNSTONE1

the exact same thing happened to me a few years ago but I noticed the error when they sent through the award notice, Its anoying but they do ask you to check all the info is correct. I called up and correct their mistake and arranged to pay the money back. They will let you pay back in monthly instalments I'm sure.

creamegg112

They put the money in the bank before forwarding any confirmation to double check the information they have entered is correct which is back to front. It was transfered into her account on 23rd Aug and we have just received the confirmation letter now.

Becauase my mother entered the correct information on the forms she had confidence that the amount in her bank was correct and therefore spent it. Due to them not acknowledging the clerical error before transfering it into her account should she have to pay it back? What steps do we need to take.

I am in the process of writing a letter up confirming it was there mistake and asking if we can pay it of in small monhtly installments but are we entitled to not have to pay it back xxxxxxxxxxxx

[Deleted User]

The information on the form is read by a data capture machine and there has been no reports of there being an issue this year although there was a glitch last year in that the last digit was missed off.

It is possible your mother did make a mistake, everyone is human and it can happen. The overpayment will still need to be paid back. You can submit a SARS request to get a copy of the form returned to prove who was at fault but I dont think it will really solve the issue of the overpayment.

SARWIL

We have just been informed of a 5.5k overpayment last year. I called the inland revenue and was told it was because they had me down as claiming 'income based' Job Seekers Allowance over a year ago which automatically results in them paying the full Working and Child Tax Credit amounts (#550.00 per month ongoing). In fact I never have claimed this, I claimed 'contribution based' Job Seekers Allowance which is different and you only get for 26 weeks. Because I never picked up on the difference (which I had no idea about, I did not even know there were two kinds of allowance), they have put this back to me saying I should have notified them of their error. They have not yet asked for any money, but it will take 10 years at the current rate of them taking what is genuinely due to us to pay this off (they take the money direct, we dont even see it). If we earn more than 50k per year then we will have to pay it off. I dont have a leg to stand on. I will never claim anything from them again, it is not worth it. I am worried sick,

skintas_2

when i first claimed they asked for my oh annual inocme i didnt know it so i left it blamk. they wokred out we where entiltd to 5k, i rang them told them this wasnt right they still sent the money wrote it down as i recieved it. when i tried to give it back to them they said it would have to come outta future payments, i was goin back out at £10 a week, basically i wasnt getting it from 2003 til 2012. last year my partner left for 6 weeks, when he moved back in again we started a new claim, they wanted £29.50 a week off me. ive been paying this nearly 12 months with another 6 months to go, what a fiasco...this has been really skinting me..

[Deleted User]

skintas wrote: »

when i first claimed they asked for my oh annual inocme i didnt know it so i left it blamk. they wokred out we where entiltd to 5k, i rang them told them this wasnt right they still sent the money wrote it down as i recieved it. when i tried to give it back to them they said it would have to come outta future payments, i was goin back out at £10 a week, basically i wasnt getting it from 2003 til 2012. last year my partner left for 6 weeks, when he moved back in again we started a new claim, they wanted £29.50 a week off me. ive been paying this nearly 12 months with another 6 months to go, what a fiasco...this has been really skinting me..

If you left it blank it makes it your fault.:rolleyes:

Oldernotwiser

skintas wrote: »

when i first claimed they asked for my oh annual inocme i didnt know it so i left it blamk. they wokred out we where entiltd to 5k, i rang them told them this wasnt right they still sent the money wrote it down as i recieved it. when i tried to give it back to them they said it would have to come outta future payments, i was goin back out at £10 a week, basically i wasnt getting it from 2003 til 2012. last year my partner left for 6 weeks, when he moved back in again we started a new claim, they wanted £29.50 a week off me. ive been paying this nearly 12 months with another 6 months to go, what a fiasco...this has been really skinting me..

Why spend it if you knew you weren't entitled to it?