Tax credits overpayment

choginosh

Hi, please could somebody give me some advise. My new partner is separated from his ex wife and he has found a letter from Tax credits saying that they both owe nearly £5000 in overpayment from 2003-2007. My partner never had anything to do with the finances and has found out that he is in about £15000 of debt, not including mortgage and 2nd mortgage.
He knew nothing of this overpayment until now.
Any advise on what to do would be appreciated!!

kaylzbob

This is unfortunately more common that you'd think. Joint claim, one partner deals with all finances but mucks something up and both parties are liable. Your partner's best bet is to phone them and find out how the overpayment happened, once he has found this out he can dispute if he feels TCO have made a mistake. The biggest problem he will have is that when you apply for tax credits you sign the application form agreeing to keep them up-to-date and if it's a joint claim you agree to pay back half of any overpayment. Get him to phone them first tho

choginosh

Thank you for your reply. I thought that was probably the case. My partner has phoned them but they weren't very helpful, so he phoned his ex wife to contact them but she just buries her head in the sand and thinks it will go away, likewise with the rest of the debts, the bills havn't been paid for 2 years and she doesn't show any sign of paying them now.
My partner is doing his best to try to sort out the joint debts but has never had to deal with finances so it's all new to him.
I will tell him again to phone hmrc to find out how he overpayment happened.