Tax Credit overpayment advice please!

Annaeliz

I just typed the longest post ever and it disapeared! :eek:

I'm new to this board, but am hoping someone can help/advise me.

I have had a call from Revenue and customs this morning saying I owe over £1000 and it needs to be paid by 8pm tomorrow night.

After phoning up the helpline I have managed to find out it is from a missed renewal in 2008 which I sent a dispute to them for. However they have not received the dispute (which I sent in Sept 2008) and when I asked why they have left it until now to contact me they said that 'it is not up to them to chase me' . As faras I was concerned I sent them my dispute and it was all ok. I phone them on a regular basis as my partner is Self employed so I am always worried we will be overcharged. Nothing has every been mentioned. I had a letter after the last update I gave them to say we owed £63 from 'previous years' but this would be deducted of our payments friom the following months.

Apparently I can stop court action for now by filling another dispute form in, but it has been so long that I am extrmemly hazy on dates/timing etc. The man on the phone basically said I had no chance as I have 'more than enough time' to complete renewal packs. Yes I can see that now but at the time i was new to the whole tax credit thing and very naive and thought I had updatred them

As I remeber it this is what happened.

My eldest son (now 3) was born with a strange medical condition from birth we were having to taking him to the drs hospital weekly and then he had to go for many tests etc. in January 2008 he was diagnosed with an extremly rare condition which meant amongst many other things he was at a high risk of anaphylactic shock (he can get too hot, too cold, too excited, too upset and there are a million things he cannot ewat incase he has a reaction). In April 2008 I was sent a renewal pack for Tax credits and also started claiming DLA for my son. I phoned up the tax helpline about a change in my circumstances (didn't press the renewal option on the phone) the day before the pack arrived, went through all my details including DLA and how I had stopped working, and dates etc. The following week I had a letter about my new tax credit payments and in my head I was convinced all was 'updated'. I was pregnant at the time with my second baby and had been very sick, this combined with no sleep from looking after my elsdest probably meant I wasn't as on the ball as I would usually be, but tax credits were new to me as well so I didn't realise how even though I had just given then all of these vdetails I would have to do it again on a different option on the phone.

A few months later end of july or begining of August *i think* I received a letter stating I had not renewed my tax credits. I then went into labour with my second child and to be honest forgot all about the tax credits until another letter arrived around the end of september *i think* whilst I was in hospital with my 4week old baby who had been rushed into hopspital unconcious! He was in hospital for just over a week, had an operation and then when he was better I phoned tax credits gave them all the details i gave them in April and they restarted my tax credits. They said I owed them money as they had paid me for months when I hadn't sent the pack back but they said they would send me a dispute form sonI could explain all of this which I did. I wrongly 'assumed' everything was fine after this as none of my circumstances had changed they had all the correct details so what could be wrong.

I am so stressed aboutr this now. I am starting university in January to do nursing (something I have wanted to do since leaving school 10 years ago) as despite my worries about something happening to my son, we just can nhot afford to live on one wage, work has been slow my my partner and we need me to have a job, and I want to go to university and qualify for a 'career' in something I will enjoy. I don't even qualify for childcare element of tax credits as I won't be 'working' (even though 50% of my course is work placement I won't be getting paid for it so it doesn't count!). I don't think I can take another debt on top of everything else! Sorry this is a mega post, but I know this is a fab site and am hoping people will have advice so I didn't want to leave anything out!

Annaeliz

Sorry to bump my own post. Is there another board I can post this on for help?

Basically I know I went on a bit but I just wondered how likely I am to win a dispute or if I actually am going to have to pay this back?

wobin

I cannot say whether or not you will have to pay back the overpayment, it is your decision whether you want to dispute or not. As far as I know when disputes are investigated the tax credit office need to ensure they have met their responsibilities, these would have been giving you correct information, sending you updated awards, etc. From what you have said it seems like they have met theirresponsibilities and you have not HOWEVER if they deem extenuating circumstances it may go in your favour as a goodwill gesture - how likely this is - I have no idea.

When your new dispute is received they would suspend any recovery of the overpayment until a decision has been reached. If you do have to pay the money back you can request to spread the payments so that it is more manageable for your circumstances.

If I were you I would call the overpayment helpline and inform them TCO never received your initial dispute, you are sending another one and hopefully then can suspend recovery immediately. I would also phone the tax credit helpline after 2 weeks or so to ensure they received your dispute.
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