No repayment even tho Tax Credits at fault

sillymoo_2

I've just been reading in money saving expert that if the tax credit office makes a mistake you won't have to repay the money back. Well this isn't always true. A few years ago my husband and i split and i notified the tax credit office the next day. I only found out nearly a year later that i had actually been overpaid. Despite going all the way to the parliamentary ombudsman and despite the tax office telling me in writing that i had done everything right, that there was no way that I could know i had been overpaid, and the tax office saying that although I had written proof that they had told me that the tax credit had stopped due to my notifying them, stopping the tax credit didn't necessarily mean that the payment would stop (their words not mine....it beggars belief!) and I had to pay nearly £400 back, causing hardship for me and my family at the time. This was entirely the tax credit offices fault, which they admitted. I have everything in writing!!:mad:

DanE2010

was it because when you told them you and your husband had split your payment had already been issued and couldnt be recalled? for example if I rang up tomorrow to say my partner had moved in, my payment due on weds would of already been issued, ive done everything correctly but that payment has already been issued so TC cannot stop the payment since the bank have already accepted it therefore causing and overpayment?

SuziQ

I'm stilll in appeal on this osrt of problem-they said they didn't get my signed form back, I have proof they recieved it, they carried on paying me so I had no idea they hadn't recieved the form, even when I 'phoned them about various things during that time, noone pointed out my form was missing. They sent a letter saying 'they weren't saying I hadn't sent the form but that they hadn't recieved it/inputted it' and that unless I had asked the question 'did you get my annual declaration' they wouldn't mention it during a phone conversation. As my payments continued and I was never told they hadn't recieved it, why would I query it? In my case it's over £3,000 they want back: at the moment they are not pusing as I am living totally on benefit but as soon as I get back to work, I know they will be all over me like a rash, even though I have never yet recievd a final decision.

sillymoo_2

The reason that was given for reclaiing the tax credits back off me was because they deem that although I notified them of the changes, they then notified me that the tax credit had stopped, but in their words, just because the tax credit office says the claim has been stopped this doesn't mean that the money has been stopped.....honest its true I have it in black and white....absolutely no way I could fight their logic (as i said they even admit that there is no way I would have known I was overpaid due to their own calculations as I then claimed in my own right as a single parent)