tax credits ALERT for people on incapacity benefit

macintosh60

Hi Diceydeb

I am new here but find that my wife and I are in the same boat at you and your husband my wife is blind and has been on IB since 1988.
I went to do our CTC renewal the other day and was told over the phone that we would be hearing from tax credits by letter and that we could be in line for a refund.
We have been declaring Incapacity Benefit on our tax credit forms since it began and like yourself only noticed this time round.
If you have been notified could you let us know how you go on with the other 3 years that were outstanding on your claim please?

Mac

suebeloo

OMG thank you sooo much for alerting me about this. Had I not read your message I would still have been clueless. Seems I am in a very similar situation. Been getting incapacity benefit since November 1994 and have always declared it when re-newing my tax credits over the phone. Never once have they questioned the length of time I have been on incapacity benefit and as I told them today when renewing that I am blind and so is my husband and I can't read the bumph they send out every year which is why I did it over the phone. I hope im as lucky as you in getting any overpayments paid back to me..

Here's hoping!

sue

macintosh60

I am surprised that there is not more feedback on this subject as id imagine a lot of people may be affected.
It was encouraging to hear that diceydeb managed to get at least 2 years backdated and that they were looking into the previous 3 years.
If anyone else has had their renewal claim already dealt with concerning this subject it would be good to hear how thing`s went.

gaynor147

Hi,
I too was only made aware by reading these posts.I have claimed incapacity benefit since June 1994 formerly invalidity benefit.I only found my old benefit letters today to confirm the date.I filled in my renewal form which included incapacity benefit as I was unsure if it was pre 1995.I rang tax credits today and the man took all my details but seemed uninformed about untaxable incapacity benefit.He also asked for my husband's final earnings from his self employment and because we don't have these yet from our accountant was told to ring back later and mention the incapacity then.He didn't seem to want to bother with it like it didn't matter.Has anyone else encountered this?

macintosh60

Hi Gaynor

Many thanks for your reply hope i can give you some encouragement with the following information.
We received two sets of papers through today 28/07/11 our renewal was submitted 20/07/11 the papers were actually dated 22/07/11.
We had to phone tax credits today as we had a query about my wtc award.
As thing`s stand they have decided that they will be holding back a high 3 figure sum in wtc`s until the next financial year in case i earn more money in the year to come?
Thankfully they have also decided to refund a four figure sum for the last financial year`s IB declaration which should not have counted as taxable benefit being pre-1995.
We were also informed that all our previous years IB declarations since CTC began had been forwarded to their head office.
They aim to respond one way or the other to this within 6 weeks from our renewal date on 20/07/11 so i will let you know how we get on.
The guy also said that if thing`s did not go our way that would be the time to appeal using whatever help we could find... CAB etc.

Anubis_2

I don't claim incapacity benefit but could have done before 1995 and never did, but that was my own choice. I don't claim any tax credits either but just wanted to say this post is going to be useful to many I would imagine. I am wondering if there is a way to Alert Martin of this so perhaps it can be added in the MSE guide to tax credits?

I know it can be easy to miss threads, and I think it would be an important addition.

gaynor147

Hi macintosh60
Thanks for replying to my post. I am feeling a little anxious as I have phoned tax credits and they won't note the incapacity benefit being pre 1995 until my husband's accounts are prepared for his self employment.I thought they would at least note this down.We sent our renewal form in and received the letter back with our amounts before I rang.As there was no change in anything it went back as usual.I could't put my hands on the letters from the DWP and couldn't confirm the date until 2 days ago which was June 1994.All I want to do is get this sorted.I don't think they even got the point I was trying to make.Any advice?
Many Thanks

Druagh

Related to this topic will be the issue of IB to ESA migration. This process has started nationally now so all people currently on IB will be on ESA in a few years.

There are plenty of other threads about this process. However, I'm wondering how it will impact on the Tax Credits issue.

ESA is usually a taxable benefit. Does anyone know if there will be a non-taxable ESA for those who were on Invalidity and were therfore placed on non-taxable Incapacity?

An obscure question I know, but I hope one of our DWP experts can look into it?

Druagh

diceydeb

without a doubt when all the incapacity claimants have been moved over to ESA the government will save a fortune because as far as i am aware this new benefit is going to be taxable. Not only is this causing distress to already sick people but is going to impact on them financially too. It will therefore be cancelling out the extra WTC payments that people on IB get, or SHOULD HAVE GOT IF THE CLAIMING SYSTEM HAD BEEN MADE CLEAR IN THE FIRST PLACE !! and for which many of us are still fighting for back payments.