Help - filing a dispute regarding overpayment of tax credits

SarahLou

Please can anyone advise me on this problem? It has been ongoing now between ourselves and the HMRC with regards to our child tax credits. I have never filed a dispute before because, like many others, I just presume they have been right and we've been in the wrong but I'm getting into a real tizz about it now and I'm starting to wonder if we should have filed a dispute?

Here is the situation.

Our child was born on 07/07/2007 - prior to this we'd never claimed a penny of anything. After this, I started claiming child tax credit (CTC for short!) All was fine, payments were coming in no problem. I've always been very honest (and quick to ring them) with any changes. I didn't go back to work after my maternity leave so I was unemployed between July 2008 (when I would've gone back to work) until December 15th 2008 when I got another job (part time, working 17.5 hours a week).

Obviously I told them when I got offered the job and told them what my wage was to be. (The hubbys wage was already on file). He hasn't had any kind of payrise in all this time (since we started to claim til now) aside from the small "cost of living" increases (which they've also been told about whenever he's had a P60 each April). I haven't had a payrise either, not even a "cost of living" increase - not a penny. So, again, they've had my details on file. And whenever I've had a P60 I've updated them, such as this year I've done a few days overtime here and there meaning I'm a few hundred quid better off than I was.

Again though, they were told straight away. I've never conveniently forgotten to tell them anything. We have no hidden assets. We don't rent any accomodation out, we don't hold shares anywhere. Zippo. What we earn in our jobs is our total household income. Yet seemingly the HMRC still can't get it right.

Here is a summary of some letters I've had from them over the past 12 months or so.

As of 5th April 2009 I had supposedly been overpaid by £865.41. After receiving the letter telling me this (which was the first time they had ever mentioned me being overpaid), I stopped ALL payments from 5th February 2010 and was told they would re-resume automatically in April 2010 at the correct amount. (I was given the option of just reducing my payments (which had been £179.96 a month) but with Xmas out of the way I just said I'd rather stop them til April 2010 to clear off this so-called "debt" ASAP). So that happened. I didn't get a penny off them from February 2010 to April 2010 when, sure enough, they resumed payments. In January 2010 I randomly got two payments from them (before they told me I'd been "overpaid") of £11.33 and £131.03 (both transactions went into my bank on the same day). Then a further random £84.37 went in early February 2010. Then I got no payments at all (as arranged over the telephone) between 3/2/2010 and 28/04/2010 when they resumed payments, paying me £36.51, which is what I've been paid each month since then.

Given I stopped the payments on 5th Feb 2010, in a letter dated 12th Feb 2010, it says "if nothing else changes before 5th April 2010 you will be overpaid for this award period by £275.53"

However, given the fact that I stopped payments altogether for that time period, in a letter I've received today (dated 14th June 2010), the exact same figure of £275.53 is quoted again as being overpaid). Why has the figure not gone down? If I've not been paid for 2 months and then my payments were drastically cut from £179.96 a month to £34.53 a month, why has this figure not changed?

A letter I got dated 27th Jan 2010 was also saying I'd been overpaid between 6/4/2008 - 5/4/2009 by a figure of £942.90. HOW? How when we've always told them of any minor changes? And why did it continue on into 2009-2010?

And finally, to confuse things even further, we have had another letter from them today, also dated 14th June 2010, stating that I've been overpaid a total of £1140.94 but I've only repaid them £23.67 - again, HOW? How can the figure only be £23.67 when my payments are drastically smaller than they were and I also stopped getting any payments at all for 2 months?

Can anyone offer any help? Has anyone filed a dispute for something similar before? We are gobsmacked as to how this can happen - especially as they then claimed I'd been overpaid for 2008-2009 too.

When I spoke to them in February 2010 (when I suddenly got tol I'd been overpaid by £942.90), I told them that I was always honest, always rang them with updates, etc, and asked how it could happen. All I got told was that it is something to do with the time periods between THEM sending out letters and ME ringing them with my income details, etc. BUT what still baffles me is that I have always rang them in a timely manner and my income hasn't changed, aside from during 2008-2009 when between December 2008 - April 2009 I obviously didn't earn a full years worth of income, so then my income "changed" between April 2009-2010 when I've now had a P60 detailing a full years worth of pay. Aside from that, thats all that got changed and I told them about it anyway.

Please, please can someone help?

SarahLou

Please can someone have a read through my query - I'm really getting worried about it all now - I know my post is a long one but it needed to be to get the facts straight! Anyone able to offer any advice?

AnxiousMum

When you say that you didn't receive any payments for a two month period - did they close down your claim by chance? If so, they cannot claim back off of a claim once closed. The repayments would resume when you reopen a claim with them, or make arrangements to pay them direct.

The second overpayment - this could relate to the end of the year balancing possibly? The lower payment - is this based purely on your household income? Again, if you closed down your initial claim, they cannot caim off of a new claim for a past overpayment.

System

Don't file a dispute just yet. Write to them and ask for an explanation for any overpayment and the year in which it/they arose. Then you can consider disputing them.

BTW if you rang them several times reducing and increasing your household estimated income then it may be that you did yourself out of the benefit of the £25,000 disregard.

Subsoniccoyote gives a good explanation of how this works - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1954065

SarahLou

Thanks Pam17 - I've had a good read through that thread - its all news to me, I'd never even heard of the £25,000 disregard!


And AnxiousMum - the reason the payments were stopped completely for 2 months was simply because I asked them to - when I got the letter in February telling me I'd been overpaid, I rang them up in a bit of a panic, to ask if I had to pay it all back at once, obviously that isn't the case, so I said to stop them completely (as at least Christmas was out of the way!) and to just resume in April (which I was led to believe would be at the correct figure). Now of course the "debt" I'm in is going up, even though our incomes haven't changed since I last updated them.

sinstar

If you have already been overpaid within the year, there will be no entitlement left within the year, so nowhere for them to recover the payments from. So your payments might have stopped but there is nothing going towards the overpayment at the moment.

Sometimes when you have been overpaid, they will continue paying you, do avoid stopping your payments and causing you hardship - effectively increasing your overpayment. So when you asked them to stop your payments, they might have stopped these 'additional' payments, leaving you still with your original overpayment and also with no entitlement at present to start paying it off.

Find out from them what actually caused the overpayment in the first place and post again.

sinstar

Sorry I meant to say get them to give you a better explanation of what happened (I can see you have already tried to get one).

SarahLou

Thank you, I will ring them again and ask again for a more detailed explanation. If I get one I'll post it up for you to see (and see if you can get your head around it!)