Overpaid Tax Credits - not my fault how do appeal?

Ambiss

FBaby wrote: »

I don't get it.you are not disputing that you should not have received that money. You have not spend the money it is sitting in an account yet just because they continued to pay that is a reason in your eyes not to give it back and what? Spend that money that you agree you are not entitled to? What if it was the other way around? They agree you are entitled to x but you made a mistake and gave them the wrong account details. Would you think fair enough my mistake they can keep that money?

This is not a moral issue for me, If I can legally and without dispute be able to keep this money then Im not going to turn it down - it would pay off a credit card bill

As Under their own terms and the relavent law I dont think I am required to pay it all back

Also they have not asked for it back - just stated that I have been overpayed by this much

FBaby

Fair enough. Then as an non moral response I hope the law is such that you have to repay all of it in one go ideally with some interest :-) seriously based on previous such posts I think you have little chance to keep the money especially as if they wanted to they could check your account and see that repaying it wouldn't cause you hardship since it hasn't been spent.

themull1

They will send you the relevant form to fill in, it might be a dispute. If you tell the TCO of a change of circumstances on time, and they fail to take action on it, there's a good chance you can get your overpayment written off, it says so on their own website, good luck.!!

Icequeen99

Ambiss wrote: »

No problem CK, good luck with the 300k

From the government website an example

"On 1 September you tell us about a change in your circumstances
but we don’t change your award until 16 October. We won’t
collect back any overpayment that arises after 30 September."

Which is exactly what I did, Told them on this date and they didnt change the award till 6 months down the line

Which suggests I am entitled to some of the overpayment, I just need to know how to convey this properly I guess

Firstly, it is a dispute not an appeal.

Secondly, this is taken from COP 26 the code of practice explaining overpayments. This only applies if you also fulfilled your obligations which is if you then received any award notices you told them immediately that it was wrong.

If you did that then you will be able to get it written off, but you may need to tell them the date and time you called.

Print off form TC846 and send it in explaining your situation. Make sure you address the award notices you received after you reported the change and tell them what action you took.

Edited to add: It isn't law. The law (Tax Credits Act 2002) allows HMRC to recover any overpayments even those caused by their own mistake. This COP 26 is just a policy which means if they refuse to write it off, you can take it only to the Adjudicator and Parliamentary Ombudsman but really there isn't much you can do.

IQ

pickpocketlocket

Ambiss wrote: »

This is not a moral issue for me, If I can legally and without dispute be able to keep this money then Im not going to turn it down - it would pay off a credit card bill

That says it all really - you have no morals.

Pedent

It sounds like they failed in their responsibilities in that they didn't act on the information that you gave them, but you failed in your responsibilities in that you didn't notify them of the error.

From their "What happens if we’ve paid you too much tax credit?" leaflet:

"If you don’t get an award notice within 30 days of telling us about a change in circumstance let us know as soon as possible."

"You should check that the payments you get match what we said they should be on your award notice. We expect you to tell us if you get any payments that don’t match what is shown on your award notice."

So you should have let them know about the error either when you didn't receive an award notice cancelling your award, or when you first received a payment that you knew you weren't entitled to.

"If we both fail to meet one or more of our responsibilities, we’ll look at the circumstances of your case and may write off parts of an overpayment."

"We ask you to tell us about any mistakes we’ve made within 30 days of you getting your award notice. If you don’t tell us within 30 days, we’ll ask you to pay back an overpayment up to the date you told us. We won’t ask you to pay back an overpayment, which is caused by our mistake, after the date you told us."

Based on your original post, the date that you told them of their mistake was after your 6 month holiday. My reading of this is therefore that you may be able to keep the £100 that you were paid after that, but you'll definitely have to repay the other £1200 overpayment.

themull1

All the disputes etc have been put on hold at the TCO as they are dealing with renewals at the moment - they told me a few days ago.

banner188

I think you should have kept trying to inform them over the whole period. If someone was taking money from your account, would you just leave it for 6 months?
Maybe you are entitled to keep some of the money, but look at this the other way round. If you were underpayed for a year, they would be legally obligated to pay you back what they owed, why not play by the same rules?

SuziQ

You weren't entitled to that money, and you SHOULD pay it back. I really don't understand why you would think otherwise.

nannytone_2

you asked them to stop paying and they didnt .... so you thought youd just spend it? sounds like a really viable defence!