Supposed Over Payment of Tax Credits

philfoster

Me and my wife seperated over 2 - 3 years ago, and although this was really amicable i moved back in with my parents :-(..we notified the working tax / family tax credit people who made all the relevant changes and everything was sorted for her namely it went from been a joint claim to solely in her name.

i have had daily contact with my wife and as we have 3 children have been to see them every single day, we have finally managed to sort things out and are happy to announce i have since moved back in, the problem arises because now we have notified them that i have moved back in they are saying that i need to prove i did not live there for the last year? they are saying that they have done a check with a credit agency and they have my details as still been there in april of last year? i have never changed my address details as i am named jointly on the tenancy agreement and as i have been there each day i simply picked up my mail when i went there. i applied for one of these vanquis credit card last year and because i used that address for the application as this is where all my mail was going they i didnt think anything of it. they are now saying that my wife will not receive any further money as her payments have been suspended and until she accepts liability for the approx £13000 since april they will not give her anything, furthermore our joint claim will not be processed until this has been done.

basically they are saying they will not pay us anything until we say that they are right and we will pay it back, then they will look at the new claim?

help please surely this can't be right we are trying to make things work and this stress is not helping she is fearing that she will be sent to jail. we have done nothing wrong and made them aware of all the changes .

what can we do?

Mara69

If I read this correctly, you did not change your mailing address, having all your mail going to the family home AND you applied for credit, also using the family home as your address. Oh and your tenancy is still in joint names. All this, coupled with the fact that you 'visited' every day. Of course it looks like you continued to live there.

So, what address does the electoral role have you living at? Is there anything at all that puts you at your parents address and not the family home?

If not, then you're going to really struggle to prove that you did actually move out.

philfoster

i know, it looks like we are really up against it. because i was still going there every day i didnt see the need to change my address, i always wanted to give it another go and saw that as closure of my marriage which is not the way i felt. i know that doesn't help at all. in regards to other mail going to my parents the only thing that goes there is junk mail but nothing official (bills or bank statements)

as for the electoral register i have not been on it for a number of years before we even moved into this house so that wont place me there.

the woman on the phone was abrupt with my wife earlier and left her in tears thinking she would end up in prison..?

is there anything can do?

philfoster

i meant bills and bank statements still go to the address with my wife, she never opens my mail, simply puts it on the side for me so she was unaware of the credit card i took out.

Icequeen99

philfoster wrote: »

i know, it looks like we are really up against it. because i was still going there every day i didnt see the need to change my address, i always wanted to give it another go and saw that as closure of my marriage which is not the way i felt. i know that doesn't help at all. in regards to other mail going to my parents the only thing that goes there is junk mail but nothing official (bills or bank statements)

as for the electoral register i have not been on it for a number of years before we even moved into this house so that wont place me there.

the woman on the phone was abrupt with my wife earlier and left her in tears thinking she would end up in prison..?

is there anything can do?

It sounds to me like the separation was temporary. Only permanent separation counts for tax credits. If you thought it was temporary, even if you were living apart then it should have remained a couple claim.

So even if you show you actually separated, you need to convince HMRC that you both intended that separation to be permanent and I suspect that the fact you left things at that address supports that you really didn't want it or plan for it to be permanent. In which case the HMRC decision would be right.

What you can ask for is notional offsetting which would set the amount you could have claimed as a couple in that against the overpayment. Or if you truly believe you separated permanently at the point your wife claimed as a single person then you will need to appeal the decision.

IQ