Dare I claim Tax Credits

loobylooireland

About 4-5 years ago I claimed Tax Credits. My OH was in a business partnership with another person. Money was a bit tight for us at this stage and I claimed Tax Credits to ease the situation. This partnership broke down ending very badly with OP not agreeing accounts etc so I could only work on estimated figures. I stopped claiming TC as I could only provide estimated figures. I was then issued with an overpayment claim for £5,000 odd. They chased this amount for a while but must have given up by now as I have not heard from them in probably 18 mths.
My problem now is that husband has been declared bankrupt by HMRC and I am the only one bringing in a wage and would ideally like to claim TC again. Do you think I would be opening up a can of worms by applying again. Could they refuse to pay me TC and also start looking for their overpayment back.

[Deleted User]

Unless you have been told the OP has been written off you will likely be pursued for it anyway. A new claim claim is treated seperately from any previous claim so you will not be refused TC because of the OP. You might as well claim what you are entitled to and arrange to pay back the OP once your payments have started.

loobylooireland

When i apply for TC again will they see straight away that I owe them and pay me a reduced amount so that they can claw back the overpayment?

[Deleted User]

No they cannot recover the OP from a seperate claim. You would need to make a seperate arrangement for that.

loobylooireland

But a new claim will probably prompt them to try and recover again. At the moment they seem to have given up.

karenx

They will eventually catch up with you though

[Deleted User]

Dont know much about it but is HMRC debt not included in bankruptcy?

loobylooireland

I guess so, but i'll have to give it a go. Does anyone know how long it takes from the time you submit your application to you get your money.

loobylooireland

-shel, hadn't thought of Tax Credits overpayment in the bankruptcy will have to check whether this was received in DH name or mine. It is only him who is BR, heres hoping TC were received in his name!

inline4

Dont mean to be the bearer of bad news but they WILL catch up with you. Me and my current partner had a fall out in 2006 and moved apart. We declared this and months later claimed they never recieved my half of the declaration form. So, that meant them writing to us 6 months later saying "you must pay back ALL of the tax credits you recieved for that year", we appealed and didnt hear anything until 6 weeks ago.

It was a letter stating our appeal had been turned down as we didnt meet our responsibilities etc. I wrote a letter to the manager and this was turned away too. But not worry, because if they think im paying more than £5 a week they are hugely mistaken

sunnyone

I know of 2 people who claimed tax credits in the begining when everything was a mess and they were both told that they had overpayments and HMCE have caught up with them both in the last 18 months and both for diffrent reasons.

1, they claimed tax credits with a new partner and even though the old claim wasnt paid to them (ie there bank account) they were on the claim and HMCE found them by the new claim address and they have agreed to repay the OP at £20 pe.

2, hasnt claimed TCs since but they got a card through the door one day saying a HMCE repayment person had visited, they ignored this and a man knocked on there door at 9pm at night and said if they refused to to make repayment terms that they would be taken to court for the OP.

They are now both doing the right thing and they are paying back what they owed.

sunnyone