10 letters received from HMRC demanding repayment of WTC

fzbucks

I'm looking for advice before I contact HMRC regarding a demand for over £5,000 to be reapaid.
This weekend, myself and my wife, each received 5 letters, 1 for each year going back to 2006. They state that we were overpaid WTC & CTC each year that has to be paid back.
We have always advised them of chaning income and changes in hours worked etc, they have always amended the payments to reflect this including reducing some years to replay previous yers.
Out of the blue we have received a demand for over £5,000 which it says we may be able to spread over 12 months.
Even paying this back over 12 months would be unaffordable - the money paid to us was spread over 5 years and was, in our belief, paid correctly based on the figures we gave them each year.
This demand has us really worried and I hope this is a mistake - can anyone advise or haas anyone had any experience similar to this?

Thanks in advance.

erdd2

the HMRC systems are complicated and even after "clearance" an individual/firm is not completely removed from their system until a certain procedure, that is not automatic, is put in place. Seek discussion/meeting with someone at HMRC that is trained beyond " frontline" not easy, but not impossible...good luck!

happy_lass

going through the same thing although much lower debt ! They are a bloody nightmare, and we did our bit by informing them every single step of the way of any change of circumstance. Ive asked them for transcripts of our conversations but lo and behold they dont have any record of them (how conveinient of them) .

lorelai34

If you have received a notice asking for money to be paid back directly it sounds as if they have been collecting the overpayments through a claim but now perhaps that claim has ended or there is no tax credits due to be paid this tax year which is why they are asking for it back directly. The letters you have received don't actually tell you the reason for the overpayments they just tell you the amount. What you should do is call the helpline and ask for an explanation for each overpayment although be warned you probably will be on hold for quite a while as the advisor will need to go through each tax year and try and work out the reason for the overpayments. If you agree that you have been overpaid then you would be asked to make an arrangement to pay it back or if you disagree with it you need to fill in a dispute form which they can send you or you can get it off their website.

Anubis_2

Why do so many seem to be overpaid? There seems some crucial failing in the tax credits, I see many worried over this type of letter, and it seems so unfair when people have kept things up to date.

Morglin

These guys might be able to advise you:

http://taxaid.org.uk/info/tax-credits/tax-credits-problems/you-have-a-tax-credit-overpayment

It's a charity, so information is free.

Lin