Overpayment switching to child tax

tinkerbellaneesa

hi please can someone please advice me....i was recently told by an adviser at my local jobcentre i had to fill in a form for child tax for my children as i am currently getting the money for them in with my income support. i filled the form in with the adviser who said he would post it off. this was 3 weeks ago and i havent heard anything from child tax or income support, however today my normally money was paid into my account by IS but i was also paid money by child tax?? i rang IS to quirey this and they informed me to contact child tax as it wasnt to do with them, i did this only to be told the same form them and was adviced by them they would be paying me for the children from now on and would be paying me again on thursday and the money i recieved today was a late payment from last week.
i have then rang IS back to infrom them that i beielived i had received an overpayment from someone but wasnt sure by who or by how much, i was told i would recieve a call from someone from the correct department.
i have now recieved a call but the women was no help at all, she said they had recieved a letter from child tax but not actioned it yet and wasnt sure how long that would take to do, but i would recieve a letter when it had informing me of any changes made. she also said she didnt know if there had been an overpayment but if there was it would be passed to their recovery department and i would hear from them in due time but indecated it would be a few months!!
im now very confused as to how long this will take to sort out and will my benefit be stopped in the mean time? also will i have to pay the over payment back? if so will it be in fill?
any help and advice would be really helpful, thank you!

tinkerbellaneesa

please any info would be really much appreciated x

Murgatroyd21

It sounds as though you've been paid from both tax credits and IS. The easiest way, to me, would be to deduct the amount you received from tax credits (which would be for the children element) from your IS payment (which may be for both the adult and children elements) and keep that amount in your account until someone comes back to confirm, in writing, any entitlement and overpayment details.

Oldernotwiser

If you're worried that you've been overpaid, just hang on to the excess money. Worst case scenario you'll earn some interest from it, best case you'll find it isn't an overpayment.

tinkerbellaneesa

thanks everyone. i have informed both chid tax and income support about the overpayment....child tax have said that the over payment would be by IS as they are paying for the children from now on and had emailed IS before hand so they should of stopped payment, IS dont seem to know whats going on :huh:

System

You should ask Income Support what date your entitlement to get paid for your children by them ended. I was they who told you to claim tax credits in the first place. I assume either you had another child and they say Tax credits have to pay you now or your youngest reached the age of 10 (?) and they intend to move you on to ESA. Either way they should know the end date.

Once you have that you can ask TCO what start date they have for your tax credit claim. That should help you work out who has overpaid you.

tinkerbellaneesa

Pam17 wrote: »

You should ask Income Support what date your entitlement to get paid for your children by them ended. I was they who told you to claim tax credits in the first place. I assume either you had another child and they say Tax credits have to pay you now or your youngest reached the age of 10 (?) and they intend to move you on to ESA. Either way they should know the end date.

Once you have that you can ask TCO what start date they have for your tax credit claim. That should help you work out who has overpaid you.

hi, no i havent had another baby and my youngest is 2. I was just told they are changing everyone who comes in, over and trying to get everyone swapped over by next year.....child tax have said they started paying from when the form was posted to them (which i wasnt even aware it had been as i had to phone the adviser up with my child benefit number so he could put it on the form before he sent it and i hadnt done that yet!). When i phoned IS they said at the moment it is still down on my claim that they are still paying for the children. when i questioned how can this be as i thought it was all done using the same system and when one starts the over ends (what the man at the job centre told me would happen), they said they did have an email from child tax but noone had actioned it yet!!
now im really worried as by the sounds of it i 2 or 3 weeks of money....will i have to pay it all back in one lump sum as this wasnt even my fault

System

I think this is totally Income Supports fault and if you have an overpayment to repay you should make a complaint to them and negotiate with them to pay them back over a period of time if needs be. However if you are still being paid by both you should set aside one of the payments until IS gets their finger out and actions the email from TCO.