Tax credit renewal states we owe them £4875.46 to be paid immediately!

chelle

Basically everything they paid us last year they want back.

I do not understand, as it clearly states on the renewal for last year, that if our income increases we do not have to tell them, as tax credits is for the year before income. Our income was £12K more that we said, but that was due to me working ovetime, and Dh bonuses.

Have tried calling them since receiving the letter today, but they are always "busy - please call back later".

How flexible are they on repaying overpayments, would like to get it sorted so I do not have to worry, but cannot if they are "busy", also has anyone appealed and got the amount owed reduced?

Thank you for any advice.

AnxiousMum

I would think that if there is any chance of them reducing the amount owed, that whatever amount would have to be agreed and paid immediately. Do you still have an open CTC claim? If so, they normally deduct overpayments from future payments being made to you. As for them being busy, I imagine they are at the moment as it is the middle of ctc renewal time. If you gave them an 'estimated' income for 2008/09 then they have likely based this overpayment on the real figures earned rather than the estimate. I seem to recall that if you give a 'definite' income from your P64's then you are protected under the 25K disregard, but not if you have given an estimated income.

G51shopaholic

I used actual figures and they still want £145 repaid - I'd go straight to your local Tax Office if it's close to you as this is a serious issue.

If you have to pay it back they should allow you to do this over 3 years, although this is at the Tax Office's discresion.

However if the information you were given was incorrect you could try taking up a complaints procedure (I did this when they demanded over £3000 be repaid) but mine was a clear error on their part.

All the TV ads say "has your income gone up or down?" but then they tell you - oh it doesn't matter - then hit you with a repayment demand!

Good luck

POPPYOSCAR

When this happened to us we were allowed to pay back over 12 months.They asked if we would be able to pay back over this period if not they could refer to another department and they might be able to arrange payback over a longer period of time.

chelle

I have eventually spoken to them, and they have agreed to it being paid back over 3 years.

BUT, if I have provided them with correct income figures as soon as my renewal pack has been sent out, surely it is there fault I have been overpaid. On speaking to them they use the tax year before the current tax year to decide what you should be paid, so if you have submitted new figures when your renewal pack is sent out, that will not be used until the next tax year. I also found out that I was overpaid in 08/09 by £1767.07, they never wrote to me and told me this.

Should I still dispute the overpayment amount? Seems crazy that I have kept them up to date, and I did even query the amount they were paying last year, but as the figures were correct on the notice, I was told it was fine, but obviously not!!

System

G51shopaholic wrote: »

I used actual figures and they still want £145 repaid - I'd go straight to your local Tax Office if it's close to you as this is a serious issue.

If you have to pay it back they should allow you to do this over 3 years, although this is at the Tax Office's discresion.

However if the information you were given was incorrect you could try taking up a complaints procedure (I did this when they demanded over £3000 be repaid) but mine was a clear error on their part.

All the TV ads say "has your income gone up or down?" but then they tell you - oh it doesn't matter - then hit you with a repayment demand!

Good luck

Whether or not an overpayment can be recovered over a longer period is NOT at the local Tax Office's discretion. HMRC enquiry centre staff act as intermediaries between the claimant and the Tax Credit Office and whilst they can help with hardship payments, changes of circumstances and to explain/dispute overpayments and in the filling in of forms they have no discretion when it comes to overpayment recovery. That discretion is solely down to the TCO "Time to pay" helpline - 0845 302 1429


chelle before you dispute the overpayment ask for a written explanation of how the overpayments occurred in each tax year. When you have it in black and white you can then construct your grounds for dispute.

chelle

Pam17 wrote: »

chelle before you dispute the overpayment ask for a written explanation of how the overpayments occurred in each tax year. When you have it in black and white you can then construct your grounds for dispute.

Thanks Pam, do I write to the overpayments office, or the address that is on my tax credit renewal notice to find out that information?

Thanks again

TaxCreditHelp

Your Tax Credit payments for 2009/2010 would have been based on your income from 2008/2009 but you should have been asked to provide estimated income for 2009/2010 when you completed your renewal for 2008/2009. If you didn't provide an estimate then the system would have automatically taken your income from 2008/2009 as a system estimated income for 2009/2010. I hope that makes sense.

If your income was going to be vastly different from any estimate on the system then you should have informed Tax Credit Office so they could adjust your payments throughout the year to avoid you receiving a large overpayment following your declaration of actual income with your renewal.

If you still have your renewal paperwork for last year it may be worth digging it out to check the exact terms as it may have said 'you do not have to inform us if your income increases below £xxxxx', as there is an income threshold for Tax Credits eligibility.

Hope this helps.

System

chelle wrote: »

Thanks Pam, do I write to the overpayments office, or the address that is on my tax credit renewal notice to find out that information?

Thanks again

Write to -

Tax Credit Office
Preston
PR1 0SB

When you have the explanation you would then dispute it using this form - http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms/tc846.pdf

socks_uk

I feel for you! We had a massive overpayment to pay back even though I told them at the time of a change in our circumstances. I remember at the time (about 5 years ago) that our payments had gone down slightly and I had no reason to think it wasn't right. Ended up paying it all back in 12 months but that caused us to rack up credit card debts!
I wouldn't ever touch Tax Credits again even if we were entitled to them. I don't trust them to not make mistakes and it's difficult to work out what the right amount should be.