letter says i have been overpaid £13,726 !

midnight_express

In claimant terms you are a couple - its about financial links and many other things not whether you sleep together. You are a married couple living together and he is paying the mortgage and the bills !You'll be lucky if you don't get taken to court for fraud.

Your best bet is to get a job and start paying back what you owe.

Hmm71

I'm not really sure why the OP let a violent husband back into the house. So what if he was paying the mortgage? When my husband was with his ex-wife, over 30 years ago, he was paying the mortgage but it didn't stop her kicking him out, changing the locks and taking their house in the divorce.
Also, OP, shouldn't it have been your family house, rather than "his" house? Sounds like you need a good solicitor.
Anyway, sorry, not being very helpful. Good luck with the CAB, hope you can get all this sorted out.
As a civil servant myself I can see why HMRC believes you were a couple. Unfortunately a lot of times our job (I'm not in HMRC) is just putting info from an application form into the computer, ticking all the little boxes and waiting to see what the system says.

Triker

I agree with the other posters re you having a real struggle to prove that you aren't a couple.

If you take the emotional and personal aspect out of it and read your account again you may see where the Benefits agency are coming from.

Whilst you may be completely stating the truth unfortunately actually living with the father of your 4 children and a man who is still your husband despite a Court Order for violence against you and also a non molestation order (despite it running out) puts your credibility with any official bodies into doubt.

Charityworker

They won't make you pay it back all at once. They will work out what your legally entitled to as a married couple (which will still be quite a bit if you've got 4 kids) and then take £10 or £20 a week from that until the debt is paid.

Elvisia

Because your case is so complicated I don't think you'll get the correct answer on here, as it really needs a solicitor to go through exactly what happened and look at all your paperwork and bank statements. I would go to CAB on Tuesday, you can just turn up and wait for an appointment, and be prepared to be in there for a while! They should be able to sort out some legal advice for you, you really need to speak to a specialist about this. In terms of paying back you can negotiate what you pay back, I had an overpayment and when I asked about how much I could pay back in instalments they said I could pay back £1 a month if I wanted! I would have been about 90 by the time I'd paid it back. The problem at the moment is they are literally ticking boxes on a form and unfortunately you're coming up as having overpaid. You should have a month to write a pre-appeal letter, then if that doesn't work you can do a formal appeal. There's a fine line between them knowing that your husband is living with you, and them actually getting round to stopping your benefits, but a solicitor might be able to argue that it's their fault if they already knew. Even when the JC had told me I was being overpaid they still kept paying my JSA at the wrong rate so I was getting overpaid more and more. Or your solicitor might say it was your responsibility to write formally to say circumstances had changed.

I also totally understand why you're still living with your husband, having watched my mother do exactly the same with my father. You may also find that while you're going through this there are other things you can do in order to get yourself out of the situation at home. When I spoke to the CAB they actually came up with two other things to save me money which I wasn't aware of.

Sixer

I agree with Elvisia that your case is complicated and so I wouldn't take the simplistic advice offered here as gospel.

The DWP decision makers' guide states:

People living in one dwelling are not necessarily living together in the same household. Examples are:

two people who are married to each other or who are a civil partner of each other who separate and refuse to leave the home

This may apply to you since when your husband is there, it seems he refuses to leave the home (and previous violence means you are unwilling to throw him out). However, it also may not, since he was once prevented from living there, and also due to his financial contributions.

You need specialist advice and you should not attend the interview without it. The DWP will interpret grey area issues in the way they want them interpreted. So you need a specialist for any counter arguments or to advise you when you may explain something wrongly and in a way which could unfairly incriminate you.

Chrissiew

I do agree you will have to pay the money back, but I doubt they would expect it all at once, you will have to agree on some sort of payment plan, you can live with someone but if they are contributing to the bills then to me it makes sense that you should get less, or no, tax credits as someone else is helping you out.

DaisyFlower

It sounds like this has been going on for some time? Given you have an order to stay in the house with the children why has the divorce not gone through?

Mara69

Charityworker wrote: »

They won't make you pay it back all at once. They will work out what your legally entitled to as a married couple (which will still be quite a bit if you've got 4 kids) and then take £10 or £20 a week from that until the debt is paid.

At which rate (£20 per week, £87 per month or £1,040 a year) it'll only take 13 years - assuming the debt is £13,726. See, the debt might be £13,726 if tax credits have already calculated what the OP would have been entitled to as a married couple.

OP, you need expert help.

Notmyrealname

You are a couple financially. As you say he pays the mortgage and most of the bills. If you were truly separate you'd be paying for the roof over your head as well as food/utility bills etc etc.

Having separate bank accounts isn't sufficient.