Benefits Overpayment!!!!

Fran

akh,

I would suggest as someone else did above that you send a letter recorded delivery so there's no doubt that they have received your information. With all the mess that they're making at the moment you don't want your claim to get "lost"!

Ticklemouse

I'm in the same boat as a lot of you. Got a letter last week asking for the £6400 overpayment back asap and 'sorry for the mistake' blah blah blah. It's taken me a week to get through and when I told them I had queried the figures with them last time it had changed - I presume at the beginning of this tax year, they checked everything again, using the most up to date figures I could give them, and UPPED my monthly amount by over £200 pcm. My argument for keeping the money - using their rules - will be that if I have actually queried it already and they have given me more, then surely I could reasonably assume that I was entitled to this money and could live according to these means. I know - stupid - fancy assuming that govt depts get these things right.

Just waiting for the appeal form and new entitlement notice to come through. Oh, but they are already recovering it to the tune of £32 per week, I'm told. Sorry, son no 2 - not your turn to eat this week!

Angry Ticklemouse, who isn't making ends meet anymore!!

Yoga_Girl

I have absolutely no faith in the tax credit system, I've also appealed against an overpayment notice but months later have heard nothing.

I have always informed them of every change in my circumstances and still they botched up my "award".

I'm nearly £200 a month worse off now and I wonder why I'm struggling to manage!!! >:(

Spendless

Did no one else receive a little leaflet like I did twice (when CTC 1st came out and again when renewed) that gave a table in it listing various salaries and amounts likely to receive for 1 ,2 or 3 children?
I can't remember if it also gave WFTC and help towards childcare costs in it cos these didn't apply to me.
Unfortunately I've slung mine but does anyone else have one cos this did give figures and might be beneficial to anyone querying overpayments on here?

Ted_Hutchinson

Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit - A GuideMay 2003

gives fairly good information but not the chart including child care cost.

Spendless

AAAARRRGGGHHH!!!

The Gremlins must have been watching me trying to help peopleon here. My CTC award had come thru correct but today have received letter saying
"Thank you for making your Annual Declaration for period 6/4/03-5/4/03. You told us your personal circs were not correct but you have not told us what was incorrect.
Please contact us now with info, otherwise we will not be able to continue paying you tax credits and your payments will stop.

I haven't told them that ny personal circs were incorrect. I just filled out form with hubbys income on and mine as nil as I don't work.
I have received form in July with tax credits for 6/4/04-5/4/2205. I am entitled to 547.50 for year which is correct due to hubbys income.
Big Thank You to Ted for putting up above reply so I could check income tables.
So I am being paid correctly but am bothered that they will stop this correct payment due to me not having the slightest idea of what they want to be informed of.
Tried ringing and got message saying they are updating computers so wouldn't be able to put my details in even if I did manage to get thru.


=

Ted_Hutchinson

BBC Radio 4 Moneybox Tax credit confusion

Moneybox did an item on Tax Credit Confusion this lunchtime, you can listen again online or on Sunday 9pm. They also have an email facility for describing your Tax Credit woes.
Report your Tax Credit dilemmas to Moneybox here
Clearly Moneybox will not be in a position to take up individual complaints but the more people who present their particular Tax Credit grievances the greater is the chance that Moneybox will present further items relating to Tax Credit chaos. It was interesting that the Inland Revenue weren't prepared to put up a representative to discuss or clarify todays item, not the attitude of an organisation confident in their ability to defend their competence and performance.

An addition relating to Spendless's quest to get confirmation from the Tax Credit helpline. Moneybox tried four times to get an answer to the query they were discussing and got three DIFFERENT answers so the more times you ask the more confused you will get.

jellyhead

from what i've heard from other people, and in my own experience i'd say the best advice is don't use the internet to tell them about a change!!! it never works, they always mess it up.

when i went online to tell them i don't pay childcare anymore and also that i have a job, they decided to reset both of our income figures to zero, the muppets!! i shouldn't have bothered as neither of the changes affect our entitlement in any way (we only get the child tax credit of around ten pounds per week). when they set our incomes to zero they didn't do it straight away, they waited until the april renewal date and did it then, so they thought we were earning a wage before april, then from april onwards we were both working for free lol!! they put 1200 into the bank account and tried to pay my hubby an extra 2500 (for the year) through his wages. his work told him about it, they didn't let us know for quite a few weeks after that. there was a start date of august for the work payments so we tried to get it all stopped before then. hubby was concerned that if these payments were included in his monthly salary then he would be taxed on them, then when it was time to pay them back he'd have to pay the full amount. that may not be so, we're not experts on tax credits, but we shouldn't have to be, we're just ordinary people.

in the end we got them to stop paying both of us. they are giving me nothing for this year (i should be getting my ten pounds a week but i owe them money so they're keeping it) and then we will owe them a further 880 which they say they will take off us in future years. this is quite nice, it means i have 880 sitting in the bank for at least a year earning interest for me. other people who are overpaid might think they were entitled to it though and spend it, and i think it's really unfair for them to ask for it back in a large payment.

Spendless

Well THANK YOU Ted. Lightning dawns. I'm one of them that DIDN'T have to send form back cos my circs haven't changed.
But like Money Box said this isn't what the adverts on TV say and I think I had letter saying if didn't return payments would stop. Obviously missed box on form that said "don't return form if circs not changed". So now have to write and say didn't realise weren't supposed to return form, will point out TV ads mis-leading and tell them my award (that was sent back in July) was correct.
Have learnt lesson - in future will keep photocopies of all correspondance about tax credits.
BTW agree with jellyhead about writing rather than doing on-line at least that way you can prove what has been said.