Advice on dealing with an overpayment

kade9

Hi,

I would really appreciate any advice about the next step I should take regarding this situation:

I have an overpayment. I wrote a complaint letter to the Tax Credits Office raising 6 separate issues.

One of these was the fact that due to spending weeks last August phoning on different days of the week and at different times of the day I could never get through to anyone on the helpline to inform them of a change of circumstance (their system wouldn’t let you hold!). So I sent them a letter on 6th Sep informing them of the change. My circumstances actually changed on 11th Sep.

I continued receiving payments as a single applicant until 21st Oct. Consequently I have an overpayment of £320.65. My now wife and I were told that our joint claim would be backdated to 11 Sep, so I did not worry about the overpayment as I thought things would ‘balance out’. However, after a series of issues we haven’t been awarded Tax Credits jointly and consequently there’s no backdating.

The reply I received to my complaint letter said:

‘This change of circumstance can only be reported to us from the day the change occurs. We are unable to accept notification of this change in advance.’

If that’s the case it seems inevitable that I would get overpaid. That seems ridiculous and unacceptable. Does anyone know anything I can do? I know you can apply for help in paying back overpayments, which I’ll have to do as a last resort. But I would like to take my complaint further as the overpayment is due to fault on the part of the Tax Credit Office and not myself.

Their reply also did not tackle another couple of the issues I raised. Does anyone know how I can complain about a reply to a complaint?!

Thanks for your help!