Tax credits, overpayments and rude staff!

Gaynzie

If there is any help I would greatly appreciate it as Im in a bit of a state atm. Please excuse me if this has already been convered, but I have never done this before....anyway....just over 2 years ago I left a 20 year relationship. I contacted tax credits, as I did all relevant agencie, to inform them I had left my marriage and moved out. A while later, I received a letter saying that I owed tax credits £170. I appealed it as I had been completely upfront with everything and therefore did not know where this had come from. My ex husband had the letter too and had rang the department. He was told that the money was owed as a letter had not been returned to them in time. He was told to tell me to ring that day and it would all be sorted and no money would need to be paid. He called me directly and I rang straight away. I was told that the information my ex had was wrong and that the £170 was due to be paid. After trying to find out why, it turned out that whenever I had rung them, they spoke to me regarding my single claim and not the joint claim, therefore all my correspondance was on the single claim and my joint claim showed there had been no contact. so whilst i had returned everything, they put it all with my single claim. I told them I didnt know the difference, I had just called them as an agency to sort it out not knowing the difference. Anyway, my ex refused to pay anything so everything was left to me. I appealed but was told it was not upheld and I had to pay it back, which I did. This was taken out of my weekly allowance.
I have since got married and as I did not want to get hit with an overpayment again, informed them of EVERYTHING! From when I married, moved in with partner, started work, started my own business.....then last week I get a letter (in the wrong name!) saying I owed them £900+! I rang and was told that this was due to a change in my earnings....how? I had told them every time something changed! Then today, my husband and I got 4 letters all saying different things! I rang them today to ask them to go through it all with me as I didnt understand and was told that the £170 I paid back to them is showing unpaid. I explained that this was their mistake not mine. They then called me a liar, talked over me, said something insinuating that there had been several partners (1 husband of 15 years and now a new husband of 5 months!). I was absolutely gob smacked. I spoke to a manager who called me a liar and told me I could appeal but agreed that I would be wasting my time! I have been crying all day! I told them I am not paying the £900 as I have already paid £175 which they claim I havent and im not prepared to do this again. Im diabetic and not eaten and cant believe that this government department can do this. I have done everything within my power to sort this out and now i dont know what to do. I am disgusted that they can get away with this, absolutely disgusted. I called my local cllr who says he cant help but put me in touch with my community law centre. anyway, I dont want to pay them back no matter how little they say they will take and told them they can take me to court!!!! I was very upset!!! Anyway, and help or advice at all will be really appreciated. thank you

lorelai34

I'm a bit confused. The 175 overpayment was from your previous joint claim which you have paid back. If it isn't showing as being paid you may be better off contacting the overpayment helpline a on the tax credit helpline all they can see is the original amount of the o/p and the amount of the o/p outstanding. If the full amount is showing as outstanding that's all the advisor can tell you. However you mention they took the 170 out of your weekly allowance but this is not possible. If you have an o/p on a previous joint claim they cannot recover it from a new claim.

The 900 o/p, which claim is that from? Is it from the same old previous joint claim or was it your new single claim, or was it your new joint claim? If it's from a new single claim or a new joint claim you cannot refuse to pay it back because you have already paid back 170 as they are 2 completely separate claims. You have been told the reason is due to income but you disagree with that which is your right to do so now you must fill in a dispute form and dispute it. You need to dispute it, you cannot appeal an overpayment.

Lastly the manager should not hbe told you it was a waste of time disputing as team leaders in the call centre you have called do not deal with the disputes once received. It may be his opinion you will be unsuccessful but he should not be giving his personal opinion!

Gaynzie

Thanks for that but I know I have paid back the £170. I no longer have the letters etc as this was two years ago. I understand what you are saying about the joint and single claim, but whenever I have called I have no idea if Im dealing with which. How else can they recover the money then?
The £900 is from my single claim. What confuses me is that I have been completely honest and open with them and informed them of all changes etc and now they whack me with a huge amount of money. Ive just stopped my business due to personal circumstances but not going to claim tax credits again as this is beyond a joke.

Gaynzie

And I know that the £170 is a different claim but its to the same department and Im not going to pay the same department again in case the same thing happens

System

TCO cannot deduct an overpayment incurred in a terminated claim from a new separate claim. The only way to pay back an overpayment from your old joint claim was by cheque or payment slips.

Regarding the £900 overpayment even if you advise TCO of a change in income etc sometimes when the change is implemented the entitlement is reduced by such an amount that the total you have received to the date of the change is more than your revised entitlement. That could be the reason the £900 overpayment arose. You won't know though until you make a written request for an explanation. When you get that then you can decide to dispute the overpayment.

LL30

You have my sympathy. I have spent the last 3 months trying to sort out an old joint claim, so I understand the confusion it can cause. I received a letter this morning, which was absolute garble, random dates on it which didn't correlate to anything and sentences that didn't appear to be finished! It was the last straw and I rang them up for a full explanation as I have been trying to finalise this old joint claim for over 3 months. They had been doing the same with me too - confusing the joint claim with my single one, so it was in a complete mess. Fortunately, I had a lovely lady who consulted her manager and they sorted it, finally!

I know it may not help you now, but if you feel yourself becoming overwhelmed when you're trying to sort out matters like these in the future, tell them you will ring them back once you've got your paperwork together so you don't become over emotional. I always:

Write down the time and date I rang them so I can refer to it, and short summary of convo
Keep all paperwork, get a little file and section it accordingly, don't throw anything away
Any letters that I write are done on the computer and saved, then sent (with proof of sending) and I ring the following week to make sure they've received it (and to give them a nudge )

Yes it's time consuming, but it's amazing the amount of power it gives you when problems do occur - they have their record of everything, and so do I! Like I said, probably not much help now, but I do sympathise, and you're not the only one with regards to the joint/single claim scenario. Please make sure you get something to eat, I know it's hard but it's only money, it will get sorted xx

dundeedoll_2

Sorry you are having problems. I was battling with them from April 2004 - April 2009.

This site was a great help to me (click)