Tax credits want nearly £500 back

dhug

Last year I was claiming tax credits until September when my daughter reached 18, I filled in the finalise claim form and have today come home to a letter saying that I owe them nearly £500 because they say I was overpaid,but it is not as simple as it sounds.
I was paid by direct bank transfer until May when for no reason it stopped when I rang then I was told it was a software problem that they knew about and i had "slipped off the system" they were working on a fix but until that was sorted I would not receive any money, I asked for manual payments which were refused so until the end of september I received nothing despite numerous letters and phone calls and involving my MP then in September I received a payment for all the money that should have been paid. Now they are saying that I received child tax credits of £1302 and so I have been overpaid by £495.79 as I should have only received £974.49 but my bank statements from last year clearly show all the payments that were made and they total £937.07

I have just come off the phone and they are sending me a form to dispute the award has anyone ever successfully managed to dispute a tax credit as I dont hold out much hope and really dont want yet another summer of fighting with them

babyruth_2

hi there....im in the middle of a dispute at the moment for an overpayment for 1200 ish. I admit it's not looking too good but i appealed this last year and they have only just got back to me a year later so it delayed it a bit, deffianitly fight for it mate what have you got to loose seek some advice too from cizt advice

sorry couldn't be of any other help

x

jem16

Yes I disputed a tax credit award a couple of years ago when they wanted over £300 paid back to them. The problem seemed to stem from my younger son continuing full-time education until he was 18. They said that I didn't tell them he was continuing - I said he was already 16 when I first applied. So they sent me a dispute form.

Turns out they had made a mistake with the date and had a 6 month gap between leaving school and continuing full-time education(even though he had never left!)

The award was then amended and it turned out I owed them £8 which they have never collected.

So I would say fill in the dispute form. You should be able to get the bank to confirm the payments or send them copies of the statements.