In a bit of bother with WTC overpayments

charchar_3

UKTigerlily wrote:

Now i'm worried! I claimed WTC & ended it when my contracted hours dropped under 30, they said I owed them about £50 & they'll ask for it in April I think? Then they paid in a few quid lol confusing

They probably did pay you some money, as an alteration automatically pays out a small amount. No idea why!!!

dvds2000

charchar wrote:

They may ask for full payment but will not expect it!!! It can be paid off in instalments which means you will have reduced payments in the future.

I'm sheduled for a payment in February which i am not entilted to as i have left my job to look after my son who is due to have hospital treatment. I've told them but apparently there is a glitch in the system which won't let them stop my payments, so i've set up another bank account to put that money in so i know i can't spend it.

They have no idea why my payments can't be stopped, but have asked them to keep me updated by letter (so i have proof) of the payments made and the telephone conversation we've had. I have also been to the jobcentre and have a reciept which says the jobcentre have informed tax credits of my change of circumstances. I trying everything to prevent having a bad news letter popped through my letterbox!!!_pale_

In this case surely an overpaymet would clearly be down to their mistake, and if they ask for it back you can ask them to write it off for that reason

DazzerG

dvds2000 wrote:

In this case surely an overpaymet would clearly be down to their mistake, and if they ask for it back you can ask them to write it off for that reason

Apart from the fact that she's aware that the money isn't hers but the tax payers.

charchar_3

DazzerG wrote:

Apart from the fact that she's aware that the money isn't hers but the tax payers.

Yep! That's why it's being put to one side and not to be spent. I know when i'm getting money i'm not entilted too, so i'm not going to go out and spend it! I'd feel guilty for one!!!

col

My sister works for CAB.

Advice she gives to customers is if they give TC all the info required and kept it up to date then TC have no claim to any refund as its their fault not individuals.

Col

System

That's not necessarily true.

If you inform the TCO of a change in circumstances then you should expect a new award notice to be sent to you with the new details on it. You might also expect to see a change in your payments. If neither of those things happens then that should set alarm bells ringing in your head and you should call TCO immediately to check that the change you told them of is actioned.

I know most people who are expecting an increase in their payments would be on the phone like a shot to chase up their extra money so if you know your payments should have gone down and you are probably receiving more than you are entitled to then it is up to you to chase it up to ensure you don't end up with an overpayment.

Jon_01

Hang on, here. When this god awful system was first setup every time you’d call them the system would generate a new award notice (which, of course, was different to the one you’d just received), you’d call to query the new one and round and round you’d go.

I was told by several of their operators (which, in hind sight, is no reason to think it’s right) that you’d only get a new notice if the information you’d given them would change your award… They seem to use which ever argument best suites their case.

I spoke to a solicitor over the weekend. You’ll never get any info out of them, unless your very, very lucky. Dawn Premorola is on record as saying if it can be proved it’s their error they’ll right off the dept.

By a bit of luck I’ve a letter from my MP telling me that they’re going to pay £666 into my back acc (anyone else find that figure very funny ?) and my insistence that they don’t. They did anyway because, they said, I was “entitled to it”. They now say I was over paid in that year by over £600 !!!!

My wife and I have spent the weekend going through ever bit of paper work we have. We’re sending copies of it to the tax office (for the 7th time), my MP, Miss Premorola and (just for the hell of it) BBC’s working lunch. If they take us to court we’re going to counter sue for harassment and take it as far as we can…

charchar_3

Some one mentioned that it was the TCO's fault if an overpayment occurs and therefore shouldn't be paid, but these are the rules:-

In which circumstances will you write off an overpayment?
For us to write off an overpayment you must be able to show that the overpayment happened because:

we made a mistake, and
it was reasonable for you to think your payments were right.
This means that you must have checked your award notice when you received it.
If you ask us to reconsider our decision to recover an overpayment, amongst other things, we will:

check our calculations are correct and based on the information that you gave us,
check that we did not instruct your employer to pay the wrong amount of Working Tax Credit,
check that we did not delay in using the information you provided,
look for any incorrect or missing details on your award notices that we would have expected you to spot and to tell us about, and
consider your reasons for believing that your payments were right.
We will take the same approach where another Government Department made the mistake that led to the overpayment. We would consider whether it was reasonable for you to think your payments were right, following the mistake by the other Government department.


This is just a snippet of the leaflet, but may help out some who are trying to appeal against paying an overpayment back!

nogginthenog

One more point,please dont forget......you have to PROVE that you gave the TC people all your information

Jon_01

I think the point here is…
it was reasonable for you to think your payments were right.
This means that you must have checked your award notice when you received it.

If you give them the information and have been told that they will only contact you if your award changes due to that information then it’s reasonable to think your payments are right.
OK, you could call them and ask and ask and ask, but come on. Anyone whose ever called them knows that was a hiding to nowhere that was, they could never find your details, they could never confirm any of the information you’d given them last.
They told me that I was on the system three times for months, now I’m on once I wonder where the other two sets are ? and if the info from them was combined into the current set or just deleted ?
My wife was told (after 2 years) that she was on another claim and that all the money she’d been given was going to be reclaimed. She wasn't, but it took intervention from the MP to get that one sorted…