Tax credit overpayment

cambermam

Hiya

Had a letter today re. an overpayment from 2009.

This is the story:

I was living with ex from Jan 09 - July 09.

We split at end of July around the time the renewal was due. I called to say he moved out and started a single claim.
When doing this, the guy on phone finalised the joint claim. I specifically asked several times - "so now i've given you all the info to finalise that claim, i don't need to renew?" I was specifically told several times, "no, it's all done".

2 months later i get a letter "your tax credits are going to be stopped as you didn't renew". :mad:

So i called again and explained, gave all renewal info for both me and ex (we were both on benefits during this time).

And repeat ("we have no record of your last conversation" :mad::mad:)

As far as i was aware it was all then sorted.... Until i get a letter saying i owe them £854? :eek:

I called and they said it's cos i was late giving the renewal info and that i can only dispute it. I spent a long time on the phone to lots of different call centre staff, and by the time i got confused with it all at the end i thought it was sorted (stupid, stupid me!!!).

Today i get another letter (dated 2009) saying my payments will be stopped. I've just called and explained everything again.

He said that basically, my ex was supposed to renew individually and me closing the joint claim and giving both sets of income info was not good enough, and that ex had a responsibility to call himself aswell.

Is this right? Because when he left his ex wife prior to all of this, he did nothing and she just sorted it all out!! Same with me when we split a time before this (we had a rocky relationship!!)

So obviously, the child was mine, i had always got tax credits for him, when ex moved in i told them and now all of this has happened?

So they're saying i should pay half (!!!!!!?) and he should pay half.

My head is spinning with this. Can someone tell me, is this right and is there any way to dispute it? Obviously my ex had no idea he had this "responsibility" as far as he knew i had done everything i was supposed to do. They had never written to him as he had no fixed address so he has been blissfully unaware of all of this (until i tell him).

zagfles

Sounds like they've screwed up finalising last year's claim.

For a joint claim - either of you should be able to inform them of a change in circumstances: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/tctmanual/TCTM05500.htm

It's worth having a dig through the tax credits manuals, these define how TCO should handle things... http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/people-advise-others/manuals-rates/manuals/index.htm

I'd suggest writing to them explaining everything, and if you have the dates you called them it might help (I think they record calls), check through phone bills if you can't remember.