CTC overpayment please help!!!

guardian_2

Hi i am a newbie here so hope i am doing this all right.
Right back in feb this year 2006 i was on I.S claiming CTC for my 2 children..no other income except Child ben, then in late feb my patner moved in and we changed the benifit to JSA (he claimed for me as a couple) i wrote to the child tax to inform them of change of circumstance with all details JSA and Child benifit only income .We carried on getting CT (which i stupidly assumed had been sorted) untill the review letter came in april i notice they were still paying me as single on I.S so i rang them to be told they had no record of my change of cicumstance and would stop the CT claim there and then (end April) send me a new form to fill in..straight forward i thort as on JSA we would be intitled to CT for my lads..we were but the CT wrote to say as i was overpaid on a single claim from feb to april i had to pay 300.00 back, so i appealed and said hang on you were informed and we as a couple should still have been intitled to CT from feb to april anyway so the overpayment on single claim should be cancled out by the backdated joint claim, only to be told no it wasnt a backdated claim it was a new claim from April..(But we had been on JSA since End feb when he moved in) I Received a letter today saying no i still owe the CT as i should have been aware the payments were wrong..so it looks like i have to pay back money we should have been receiving for my children from feb to april. they are refusing to back date our joint claim to feb as they say we didnt not inform them until april so this is when the joint CT payments are from..So what happens to the money we were intitled to from feb to april if i have to repay the overpayment on the single claim...Surley my children we intitled to some payment. I am at my wits end as my patner has now moved out (didnt work) so i have had to send in yet another form to sort a single claim again..i can not afford to pay this money back and dont see why when we should have received a payment anyway joint or single as we/i were on benifits only... i can not see that this payment is owed at all..please any advice would be appriciated greatly..its such a mess i know 300.00 to some people isnt a great deal but to me it might as well be millions...At presant because i have had to put in a new I.S and CT claim i have had all money except child ben stoped until the new claims are proccessed...28.40 a week i have at the moment until they sort my claims out..how do they expect people to stay calm and reasonable. I Hope i have explained this ok bit long winded i know lol
Thanks in advance Carol x

SusanCarter

I think most benefits places don't appreciate that the people receiving them actually depend on them so they can often be slow and mess you about.

I would recommend that you speak to citizen's advice as they will know more about the "ins and outs" of CTC etc.

Do you have a copy of the original letter you sent about your change of circumstances? If not, do you have any kind of record of it? (e.g. note in diary, certificate of postage etc)

I would write a letter stating
a) details of circumstances before partner moved in
b) details of circumstances while partner lived with you (including dates of move in/out)
c) details of circumstances after partner moved out

I would explain that you did let them know of the change (and provide details of any evidence if you have it) and that therefore your claim should not suffer because of it.

Actually, I've just remembered that your claim is usually based on the previous year's income. If your income turns out to be more then you get less CTC but only if it is over £3000 more. As you are on benefits and were while your partner was living with you and he only lived with you for a couple of months by the sound of things, I would think you would still be entitled to the maximum CTC.

As you are now single again, your current claim should only be based on your own income from last financial year. They cannot blame you for not realising they hadn't changed it: you are not a specialist trained tax credit calculator, they cannot seriously expect every person who gets CTC to understand it and be able to work it out. If that were the case then nobody would employ accountants as they'd all be able to do it themselves.

Hope that's helpful, feel free to post if you have any questions about what I've said. Oh, and make sure you get a certificate of postage when you send them any letters and that you keep a copy of them for your records.

CIS

The threshold from april 06 onwards is £25K, it was previously £2500, rather than £3K.

A CTC claim that is based on qualifying benefits (JSA etc) is paid in full for the period the qualifying benefit is being claimed regardless of the previous yrs income., as your now back on IS you'll be entilted to full CTC every week that the current claim is in effect.

guardian_2

Thank you both for the reply...Susan i have a copy of the original letter i sent to the CT explaining that my patner had moved in in feb i sent that the day he moved in will all the details of out income etc this i sent to the appeal for over payment..they say they didnt receive it...i sent a full explaination letter to the appeal saying that we should have had the joint claim backdated from feb so that the new claims feb to april money would have canceled out the over payment on the single payment..but they are adamant that as i was not single from feb onwards i was not intitled to the CT payments. I understand that it was a single claim they had payed me, but surley it simple enough for them to see that on the joint claim when back dated the 2 payments would cancle each other... it looks like they have not back dated the joint claim but taken it from april so on paper it looks like i was getting CT i was not intitled to so its a over payment.It is not my fault but i am going to have to pay for their lack of understanding. so from feb to april on paper i was intitled to nothing for my children? as the joint claim didnt get sorted till april and not back dated. this stinks i did the right thing by writing to them and ringing them straight away when the award letter showed the error, and now looks like i will end up paying back money my children should be entitled to..I will take your advice on the CSA i have also been told to send in a letter of complaint to the CT as this is the only step open to me from their point of view. If the CT payments are baised on the previous years income how come they are taking into account this years? I am totally confused!! In fact i dont think half of the CT advisers have a clue either, i have been told so many differing things. Any way for now thank you for the advice will update you as and when x x

SusanCarter

The reason for basing it on the previous year's income is that until the end of the year, you do not know your income for the current year. If your income changes, they should change the award accordingly. (i.e. if you have less income, you will get more unless you are on maximum already and if you earn more then you get less) They used to say that an increase of less than £3000 did not affect your claim (I guess because they figured most people would have a small increase and it saved the carry on of recalculations and reclaiming small amounts) but from this year onwards you can have an increase of £25000 without it affecting your claim.

I would defintiely pursue this as they cannot blame you if a letter went missing.

SusanCarter

I've just thought, the fact you were no longer single shouldn't mean you can't get it as the elements of the CTC are not related to whether you are single or not. The only thing which should have been affected is that your income could have changed (because it became a joint income) but if he was claiming JSA then you couldn't have had an increase in income large enough to affect it.

guardian_2

Yes thats right we as a couple were still entiltled to the CT but because they didnt back date my claim they say i have received money i should not have...eg as a single claim when in fact i was now a couple..if they had back dated the joint claim to feb and payed us as a couple for that period then i could have paid back the single overpayment as the 2 moneies for that period feb to april would have been the same..eg over payment on single claim feb to april = 300 and joint claim feb to april joint claim = 300 pay back the single claim over payment with the joint one..300 - 300 = sorted but because they started the joint claim from april i can not do this ..so on paper i owe them 300 for the single claim that should have stoped in feb but didnt..its confusing..will try to get it straight some how.xx thanks for the help xx

Contains_Mild_Peril

Guardian, you have my sympathy. You're right, of course, what they're telling you makes no sense and you were entitled to CTC, but trying to tell them that is like talking to a brick wall. I'm currently still waiting to get my tax credits reinstated after a form I'd previously sent them allegedly didn't arrive, so my CTC was stopped without warning, and they then decided that I owe them the CTC (to which I was entitled) which I received for the rest of the year (detailed rant can be found on "tax credit overpayments new report published" thread). Apparently awards based on outdated info are automatically considered wrong, even when they're right. I too had my appeal rejected, and they intend to reclaim over £1500 from me.
I don't know what the answer is, but I have no faith in the tax credit system whatsoever. They couldn't organise a !!!!!!-up in a brewery.

guardian_2

Hi all just a quick update..appealed against the ct dessision not to back date and that was turned down in their oppinion i should have know that payments were wrong..i was told in the letter..i had NO right to appeal this dession...haha watch this space...i rang CT and was told by a very helpfull lady to send a letter of complain to the Inland revenue stating why i thort the CT were wrong, why i thort i was right etc so i did, had a letter back 1 week later saying thank you, it would be looked into..and Today a letter saying .....Wait for it....hold your breath....count to 10...They CT were wrong..Yes you read that right Child tax were wrong..they payments should have been back dated as we were on jsa we were intitled to Ct so the over payment should be canceld out with the joint claim backdated...and the inland rev would send me a cheque..which was/is nice but i have calculated that the amound they are sending is also wrong...lol guess what its to much !!!! now do i tell them and then try to explain why its wrong or do i shut up and treat myself and kids to a slap up supper or 3 on the exsess lol Coments welcome !!! So people out there complain, complain and complain some times, just some times you get it sorted to your satisfaction...xx all the best people and thank you for the help xx

Contains_Mild_Peril

Well done, guardian! I got my "how to complain" booklet today, but stil no sign of the form they said they'd send for me to claim again (after months of telling me reinstatement of my CTC was imminent, I've recently been told that it was cancelled and I have to reapply).

jaja_3

WEll done, so pleased you got somewhere.

Still waiting for said dispute form, suppose it 'may' turn up next week

No worries, I fully intend to continue complaining, especially now I know it can work 'eventually'.

If/when I ever get mine back it goes straight to British Gas to pay arrears:rolleyes:

Jaja