TC overpayment and cancer diagnosis

Kelliefo

I am currently on long term sick from work after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer. So wages are down alot right now. On top of this TC have informed me I owe them £1800 for last years claim. They've already lowered my award from £1000 to £600 (I'm unsure if this is to do with the overpayment or renewal, BUT I did purposefully UNDERESTIMATE last years income by alot so I don't understand?)

I have rang and rang and cried and sobbed to them that I cannot afford to live if they take the £1800. They have sent a dispute form to me but god knows how long this could take to resolve? Their reason for saying they over paid is I 'told them my childcare was £102 a week for all of 2011/2012' I didn't. It was £40 a week and I told them that. Also waiting on all of my awards to come through from last year do I can prove it.

Is there anything I can do in the meantime? I simply cannot deal with all this, I have two small children and I'm a single parent fighting cancer. I've applied for a grant from Macmillan and have a cheque from the Young Cancer people for £170 but that won't last long.

Mara69

Have you got the award forms for last year? If so, what figure is given for childcare? The right figure or the wrong one.

You could try writing to them (stop phoning and crying, it'll get you nowhere) and advising them that repaying the overpayment at the rate they have set is causing you hardship. You also need to find out why this years award is lower as well.

Kelliefo

No I stupidly threw them away so they're sending them again for me. But I wouldve noticed I am sure! The £102 figure comes from this years claim.

My childcare is £63 a week, when I rang to tell them this they asked if it would be changing at any point in the future. I said yes, to £133 a week from August. So he added it all up and divided by 52 to get £102. I've since been informed they're not allowed to do this, so it's THEIR mistake.

mynameistallulah

Kelliefo wrote: »

No I stupidly threw them away so they're sending them again for me. But I wouldve noticed I am sure! The £102 figure comes from this years claim.

My childcare is £63 a week, when I rang to tell them this they asked if it would be changing at any point in the future. I said yes, to £133 a week from August. So he added it all up and divided by 52 to get £102. I've since been informed they're not allowed to do this, so it's THEIR mistake.

Whilst their calculation may have been wrong, if it showed up on your award letter and you did not notify them of the error, you are still liable for the overpayment.

You need to focus on negotiating the repayment rate down to something manageable. And whilst I don't doubt that you are going through a really terrible time at the moment, try to be less emotional with them - a high number of callers will have something bad going on in their lives at the moment, and the call centre staff do tend to stop listening when the caller starts telling them their woes. I don't mean that in a harsh way at all, but to be constructive you need to be to the point with them - you have an overpayment, you are on a very limited income at present, you would like to submit an income/ expenditure form to renegotiate the repayment rate.

I hope you get some better news soon.