Tax credits - Notice to Pay - urgent advice needed please

FBaby

Mumto3cheekymonkeys wrote: »

I owe little over £9000 but I am disputing it as I don't think I should have to pay the childcare back when I couldn't help having to go off sick. With 2 little boys at the time they were always picking up bugs and I also got poorly. I had to take time off work for caring for them but still had to pay my childcare bill. The TC system is very flawed and there is a website called Tax credits casualties there are some good threads on there to read.

You're coming up with a lot of stories. That you were your with partner but claimed as a single parent for months because housing told you to do so since your partner couldn't move in with you (why you didn't just moved somewhere else together, I didn't understand). Then you state that you claim childcare tax credits even when you are not working so you can have a day for yourself to rest. Now you are saying that you owe £9000 because of days your child was in childcare when you were ill....that must have been a lot of days off sick to accumulate such an overpayment. I'd be interested to know what your employer is telling tax credits that will make them decide that there was no overpayment after all.

BD3

Buzzard_legs wrote: »

Oh dear, I've just received letters too. They asking for £6,000 approx between two of us. Really worrying . Will look at advice pages above. What a mess!!

Really sorry to hear you're in a similar position.

BD3

I called the TC Helpline and having one through the options, wasn't in any queue and they ended the call. This was at ~7:30pm. I thought the Helpline was open til 8pm.

Will have to try again tomorrow. Crazy.

BD3

Update: I just found a letter dated 26May12 titled 'Tax Credits - Annual Review for year ended 06/04/2011'. This is addressed to both of us.

On page 4 it mentions that I have received too much tax credit, then it says this:

Overpayment
Up to 5 April 2011 ~£6500

...so is this the amount we really owe or the £12k mentioned in my first post? now I'm really confused.

Toe-Jam

Can they pursue you in court for an overpayment dating from 2003, or does the statue of limitations apply where it is unenforcible after 6 years ?

BD3

Sorry for the late update.

I spoke to TC team recently and the advisor was polite enough to go through the figures with me but unfortunately he only confirmed the overpayment details of one year (2004).

I called back the following day and spoke to another TC advisor, who provided me with the complete details which I wanted. He apologised for the incomplete information provided by the advisor the day before.

This was the outcome of our phone conversation, in summary:

2003/4 £5,904 overpayment. After recovering monies, I still have an overpayment of £1,520

2004/5 £4,678 overpayment. After recovering monies, I still have an overpayment of £3,763

2005/6 £1,051 overpayment. After recovering monies, I still have an overpayment of £618

Therefore, total overpayments ~£5,900

# There are no outstanding overpayments between 2006-2012

# I was given the date and amount of the overpayments and I checked with my accounts and they match.

# The overpayment will not affect my credit rating because it’s a “public” payment unless I refuse to start paying back the overpayment when its due (02Jun12)

# We are no longer eligible for WTC or CTC, based on my earnings (since it’s above the threshold). I think it’s £32,000.

# I have received the T607 letter confirming that we have been withdrawn from TC and the awards has stopped.

# As I’m not entitled to CTC, they are effectively closing my account with tem and that’s why they want to close my file with them and hence the demand for all the overpayments to be paid asap.

# Regarding repayments, they understood that paying over £5,900 over 12 mths was going to be difficult. They said that payments could be extended to 36mths without question. However, if I wanted to extend that to more than 3 yrs then they would take a detailed look at my income, outgoings, savings, etc.

My immediate feeling at the moment is that HMRC did overpay me in error and I ought to pay it back over 3yrs even thought my finances will be a bit tight, I could do it.

Melissa22_Mum

Why are they going so far back? They only give you a month to notify them if you think there has been an underpayment. I was going through all our statements the other day and I'm sure we're owed money.

midnight_express

Toe-Jam wrote: »

Can they pursue you in court for an overpayment dating from 2003, or does the statue of limitations apply where it is unenforcible after 6 years ?

The six years doesn't apply to money owed to the government.

Elvisia

1) Speak to the CAB who can take you through the options and then 2) Write to your MP, who can help even if they just forward on your letter to them.

My friend had an overpayment for 7k, I never found out why it was so much as she was like a hawk with her payments so not sure what went wrong, but she got her MP in to help and they've sorted out a very reasonable payment plan.

zagfles

Melissa22_Mum wrote: »

Why are they going so far back? They only give you a month to notify them if you think there has been an underpayment. I was going through all our statements the other day and I'm sure we're owed money.

The OP just said above she checked her accounts and they matched, so the overpayments would have been on the statements at the end of each tax year. But they don't demand repayment at the end of each year, they take the overpayments from future awards. But once tax credits stop they can't do this and so ask for direct payment if there's still some left to pay.

If you have an underpayment they'll pay a lump sum.