Child Tax Credit - Overpaid

Lawless71

I've recently has a letter from HMRC saying I've been overpaid my Child Tax Credit. I rang them and they said it was because the tax credit thresholds changed this tax year, but weren't applied to my account until after two payments had been made. As this is not my fault do I have to pay back what I've been overpaid?

Caz3121

As tax credits works on the previous tax years income there are 2 options
1) stop everyones payments in April until they get the information (renewals pack) to see if they still qualify then restart them
2) continue payments and reassess when they get the renewals pack

They work on option 2 which does mean some people end up in your position. You will need to pay it back but they should take it from this years claim assuming you still qualify for some payments

Pedent

Presumably you weren't getting very much. The only threshold that was removed was the second income threshold; the rest were frozen. I think that should mean that only families receiving £545 or less see a fall as a result of changes to thresholds.

zagfles

That sounds like rubbish, HMRC know the thresholds way before the start of the tax year. Are you sure it wasn't because your income had changed? If they had say an income of £25k for 2010/11 then you did your renewal and declared £30k for 2011/12, that would have resulted in an overpayment after April. Due to your income changing, not the thresholds.