Tax Credit Overpayments 03/04

irs101

Sure, if you've told them about the error & they do nothing about it, it makes your case for write-off much stronger.

However you said in your previous post:

they amended the payments, but this year in April my credits were reduced because I had been overpaid

So they obviously did something in response to your call. Was the latest overpayment in April due to the previous error not being fully corrected or was it a normal overpayment due to a difference between your actual and estimated income? Ask IR to explain how the latest overpayment has arisen as this will determine whether you can get it written off.

It's very hard to work out if you are worse off than in the married couple allowance days (5 years ago or so?) - it's a very complicated calculation what with the all the changes to tax, NICs and tax credits. But anyway, there are a group of people on higher incomes (probably around 10% of families) who are worse off on the new tax credits - but we're talking an small amounts compared to their total income.
While you might not agree with the delivery mechanism (and there are certainly many parts of the tax credit system that I personally think are ridiculous and a waste of public money) but you can't deny that it has been extremely successful in getting large amounts of money to people on low incomes. I can't remember what it's up to, but around £17-18bn a year to over 6 million families. That's huge - and is also the reason why, when IR muck up, the costs involved look massive!

irs

Spendless

This is interesting comment that some people are worse off under new system.

CTC co-incided with my husband getting a pay rise so i was unable to comment whether we were worse or better off by comparing wage slips.

My sister though who also only qualifies for the £545pa says that her husbands wages were £40 short but her bank acoount (cos she's the one that claims) had £40 in it from CTC ie they were no better off - it was just a juggle of money.

irs - i've been meaning to ask you this for some time. Husband has a company car as well as other benefits such as fuel and BUPA. It gives husband a negative tax code but the amount from these perks has to be added as income from form P11D?
Can you tell me why this is?

Cos of husbands income i'm aware that we wouldn't receive more than the £545 anyway whether we had car or not, but i should imagine it pushes some lower paid families over a bracket of receiving more due to having a company car - is this correct?