Tax Credits repayment !!!!

Contains_Mild_Peril

barjam wrote:

child tax credit owe us money from dec to feb we keep trying and trying to get our backdated money but just cant seem to get it . all they keep saying is that its getting sorted..... now the last 2 weeks my hubby has had 2 extra payments put into his account which we though oh! this is it, this is how they are doing it. paying us weekly... oh no its not!!!!!! we have just had a letter saying they have over paid us and they will be lowering our money for the next 10 months to pay back or we could write a cheque for it:rotfl: whats so comical or annoying or both is that they still owe us money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but thats another dept................................:mad:

I'm in a similiar position myself. The whole system is a mess. Now they've done it again: they've stopped my child tax credits because they allege they did not receive the return form confirming my details which I sent back after having to reapply for the Dec-Feb period (when my TCs were stopped because they allegedly did not receive a form I sent back. I actually finished up sending the application form recorded so they couldn't deny receiving it). Though my CTC was reinstated for a while, I still did not receive a backdated payment for about 10 weeks missed. On top of that, I've been without CTC for 9 weeks this time. My family is now suffering considerable hardship because of this. On more than one occasion I've had to scrounge from my mum to pay bills.
A while ago I received a letter from the IR, which I opened eagerly, expecting it to tell me when I'd get my TC, but no: it said I'd been overpaid over £1500 for 2005-06! I phoned up querying this, and was told I would have to get a form from their overpayments dept. if I wanted to dispute it. Eventually the form arrived, I explained the situation and pointed out that, since the money had been child tax credit which is paid regardless of income, the details on any lost return forms would not affect it so I could not have been overpaid.
I got a reply today saying

Having looked at the information we hold and that you have provided, we consider that you should have been aware that your payments were wrong. Our reasons for this decision are set out below.

We issued an annual declaration to you on 03 My 2005. This information was not returned and we have already finalised your 2004-2005 tax credits claim based on the information we held on our records at 30 September 2005. Due to this our decision to recover the amount paid in 2005-2006 still stands.

We appreciate that you will be disappointed by our decision that you will hve to pay back your overpayment. You have no right of appeal against our decision. However, if you have any further information that you have not previously given us and which you think is relevant, please let us know.

How can it not have been reasonable for me to assume that the payment was correct when it would apear that it was in fact correct, but based on the previous year's information? Since I still have the same number of children (1), the child tax credit award based on that information should be correct.
I also had no reason at the time to believe that they had not received the information. I had filled in the form online, believing it to be more reliable than the post!
I'm not sure what "further information", if any, might help my case.

Encantador, your situation is a strange one. It may be true that you should have checked the details on the award and realised that it mentioned JSA, but I would say that the same principle should apply to both parties: it should have been obvious to them that a form detailing both JSA and employment income for the same couple must be wrong, and they ought to have corrected it. You will have an uphill struggle trying to convince them that it is their responsibility.
Since there is increasing political pressure to get the shambles that is the tax credit system sorted out, maybe we'll see some progress soon, but don't hold your breath.