Benefits Overpayment!!!!

ELLA

Just got a quick question wondering if anyone can help??

I received a letter from the Inland Revenue this morning saying that they had made a mess up for the last year and that i have been over paid by £1100. They said we are so sorry for the mistake but as the money was paid recently that they want it back asap.

I am in no position to do this financially, and as such got straight on the phone to them. I think lots of people were in the same position because I spent three hours trying to get through and no luck. So I phoned a different number and spoke to someone about how ridicolous it was and how they have managed to do this.

They were quoting me figures about income and i was aying NO that is wrong. I use the IR website to tell about any changes in circumstances and I have used this four times this year. Since having a child my partner works full time and I do not. My partner updated all this on the website and it all went through fine.

However, whenever I logged back on in the future it always seemed to have our income details from when we first applied. (when i was working). I thought this was tsrange but when the paperwork came through, on the 3rd side it said as long as your income does not exceed xxx amount then you do not need to inform us. As such this fitted in fine as there was onnly one earner, my partner and his salary did not exceed that.

So it is due to their rubbish system for updating my details and their communication skills which has meant I have been stomached with this. They are sending me out an appeal form to complete.

I am just furious at the fact they think they can just demand this money when it is their own fault!!

Help!!
Advice Please!!

Fran

You need to inform them if your income increases or decreases by more than £2,500.

I would suggest getting advice from your local Citizens Advice bureau or other Welfare Benefits advisor, who can also negotiate on your behalf. If you take all your income details from the tax year 2003-4 as well as current income they will be able to do a calculation for you.

Spendless

Ella

I've just dug out my IR form about child tax credit on it to see if I could help you.

I'm a SAHM and hubby works full time.

My form says my income nil
Mr Spendless income xxxxx

Changes in income
Please tell us if income is less than xxxxx (exactly what hubby earns)
Or is more than xxxxx.

I take it that is what you've done. Each time you changed details did they send you a new form through?
And did that say on it the new income details to inform them of.

You will have been entitled to an extra £545 (or thereabouts) for a child under 12 months.

I can't see how you owe them money if your income has gone done (ie you now don't work).

I've just read thru and it does say in the event of overpayment we may ask you to pay all or some back.

I did read in Mail on Sunday financial papers that in the event of overpayment people wouldn't be asked to repay lump sum back. Instead their payments would reduce/stop until arrears had been paid back.
However it is some time ago I read it and I've seen nothing else on the subject since.

Best of luck in sorting it out.

Ted_Hutchinson

May I also suggest that you read the guide here
What happens if we have paid you too much tax credit?CODE OF PRACTICE COP26

Read and copy pages 8 and 9 and quote these in any correspondence with the Inland Revenue.
Either they should apply their code of practice or withdraw it. The current situation where the Inland Revenue Can't be Arsed to get decisions right and further Can't be Arsed to change them when notified of either changes or mistakes is likely to bring this administration into disrepute. In my view current practices with Tax Credit administration are abysmal and it shouldn't be necessary for folk to be relying on their MP's direct access hotline FaxyourMP.com to get the Inland Revenue's mistakes sorted.

ELLA

Thanks for your input guys. I tried calling them so many times but I am guessing there are others who are in the same situation trying to get it sorted. In the end I just wrote a nice long letter to them disputing what they had said.

I also refered them to the section "when we may not ask for repayment"

This could have been due to 2 reasons in their eyes:

1) If I was under the impression that everything was fine and was not aware of any error

2) If paying back the money woud cause myself and my family hardship

Both of which apply to me and your both quite right in saying they do not get their !!!!!! in gear. I always used the online service to update my situation and now I am being penalised as a result!!

Also told them I was disgusted with their little saying at the end of the letter which was " WE APOLGISE FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE THIS PAYMENT BACK MAY CAUSE YOU AND ACCEPT APOLOGY FOR OUR COCKUP!!!


So I shall have to see what happens now. But as it currently stands I have very little faith in the tax credit system.

caverncity

We too received a shocking letter on Saturday telling us we have been overpaid £1500 and when we receive our updated form we will have to pay it back asap.

They botched up and we suffer.

Also why send it so it arrives on a saturday so you have all weekend to top yourself with worry as you cant speak to someone till Monday.

Well I tried from 9am to 5.30pm constantly engaged.

Just checked my form again and it is wrong, we are not getting what they have on the form, we are getting less so how can we be overpaid?

???

ELLA

Tell me about it! I received mine on the saturday too!! Does kind of set a bad tone for the rest of the weekend.

But I am going through an appeal, written a letter and I have been researching into others cases of this on the net.

I am from Bournemouth in the South, and on the news last night was a woman in my area who also received the form lats saturday and they are asking for £8000 off her, all in one go. It is disgusting.

Apparantly there are 3 criteria they take into consideration for when they may not collect all the funds:

1) If it causes hardship to your family (income/mortgage commitments/living expenses)

2) If you had no reason to believe that anything was wrong

3) If it is an offical error (i.e they have not acted upon a request to make a change within 1 month)

What are you going to do about your situation??

???

caverncity

I think my main aim is to get in touch with them. I have been ringing morning to afternoon every day with no luck.

How am I supopsed to contest it if I cant get through. pathetic. >:(

Spendless

Caverncity

What about writing a letter and sending it Recorded Delivery.

It's what I did when I had a problem concerning my youngest and couldn't get thru on phone lines.

They did reply couple of weeks later.

scouselass

I too am in the same boat and was told something the other day by an IR operator, I haven't yet checked it out, but it went something like this. (Incidentally if I offer a lousy explanation its because its late, and also it was a bit confusing) so here goes, I was told:

It states in the regulations that if your income does not rise by more than £2,500, then this will not affect your award.

Example: on applying income is 10,000 per year, and then 3 months later you tell IR that your income has risen to 12,000 per year. Your award is not affected because your income did not rise by more than £2,500. HOwever if you ring them again 2 months later, and tell them your income has risen to £13,000 per year, all of this rise (the £1,000) will affect your tax credit entitlement. the reason is that you are only allowed one notification where they apply the £2,500 disregard, any other income change after that counts, pound for pound.

As I say, I have not checked this out, but I was struck that it may account for all these overpayment letters we are all getting. Also I am not sure how it affects the validity of challenging their decision, if this is allowed in the rules.

However, I would urge everyone to appeal, and also complain to their MP (I have said this before, so sorry to go on but it is important) IR have set up a system that has fallen over far too easy, and left probably hundreds, or thousands of people with a major headache. The Tax Credit rules needed to have been much clearer, their paperwork is a mass of error and contradictions, and the IR systems should have been far more robust than they have been. This is a social policy issue, and that's what our MP are there for, to report back to parliament about SP issues that affect their constituents.

I am going to try to find out if this rule about the £2,500 disregard is correct, and I will post back if I find out any information.

akh43

I would be interested to know if anyone has appealed an overpayment and won.

I sent in an appeal form, together with every piece of correspondence I have ever sent them, on 18 july.
So far I have not even had the courtesy of acknowledgement.

Is this how they are dealing with appeals by ignoring them?