hmrc tax credit over payment?

piklz

hi

i have received a letter from HMRC today saying they haver over paid me £2125.08.

I was claiming child and working tax credits as a single parent until december 2011. I notified HMRC about my husband living with me as of 19/11/11.

I thought HMRC wouls simply amend my claim to include my husband on it as i continued to receive payments from them. I received a new application which me and my husband filled in and sent back and i got a new award letter with only my name on it i dint think much of it as it said changed to your award due to a change in circumstances.

I called the HMRC today to ask why i got an over payment and the lady told me apparently i was still getting money from the single claim and the joint claim payments didnt start until around march april 2012???

I am so confused i thought i did everything i was required to do.

Is HMRC responsible for this mistake.

Do i have any grounds to appeal this??

PLEASE HELP IM DUE ANOTHER BABY IN A FEW DAYS TIME DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO:(

piklz

hi thanks for the reply

it only said this is your award. then i got another letter in march in joint names telling us what the new tax award will be.

what the lady said is i should not have received any payments once i notified them of joint claim the single claim should have stopped immediately.

But isnt this hmrc responsibility i thought the money i was getting was from the joint claim if i had know i would have notified them immediatly

benefitbaby

You need to get specialist advice from CAB or a legal aid specialist in benefit law.

The rules for tax credits and overpayments are a nightmare however there are a couple of things I can suggest now:
1. If you have not already done so you need to appeal and/or dispute the decision,
2. Has HMRC applied notional entitlement (this is deducting what you would have qualified for with your partner and deducting this from the overpayment)?

See http://www.litrg.org.uk/low-income-workers/tax-credits/tax-credits-advisers/overpayments-underpayments for more info.

zaksmum

Tax credits seem to cause much confusion. My friend made her entire claim over the phone and when asked about her income, gave the net or take home figure rather than the gross.

She was awarded the tax credits and when reclaiming the following year, realised her mistake and told them.

She was hit with a bill for the overpayment even though she insists this is what she was asked for.

She's contacted them asking for the repayment to be waived but they said no.

I think it's unfair that people are expected to make huge repayments through no fault of their own with a genuine misunderstanding.

pmlindyloo

benefitbaby wrote: »

You need to get specialist advice from CAB or a legal aid specialist in benefit law.

The rules for tax credits and overpayments are a nightmare however there are a couple of things I can suggest now:
1. If you have not already done so you need to appeal and/or dispute the decision,
2. Has HMRC applied notional entitlement (this is deducting what you would have qualified for with your partner and deducting this from the overpayment)?

See http://www.litrg.org.uk/low-income-workers/tax-credits/tax-credits-advisers/overpayments-underpayments for more info.

Absolutely agree that you need specialist help.

I agree that this kind of thing is an absolute nightmare.

The 'experts' will have appealed this kind of thing many times and know all the ins and outs to get the best possible outcome.

Caz3121

It does seem they have made some errors here. The fact that you received a new claim form for a couple shows that they did get the message however changing moving to a joint claim from a single claim is not "a change of circumstances" as such. The single claim needs to be closed and a new joint claim opened.
Although it appears that you have indeed received money you should have not, had they closed the claim properly you will have a fight to even get them to take the overpayment back off the current claim as it is a joint one and the overpayment is on the single claim