Tax Credits Mistake on their Part

mackers8923

At the time of renewal we rightly declared both income for my partner and myself, they have since sent us a renewal and I have found quite a major mistake on their part which has since been confirmed by them, my partners income (for this year) has been set to zero resulting in a fairly large over payment.

I know for certain (because the lady on the phone at the time of renewal) was very methodical (excuse spelling) and went through everything stage by stage spending approx 40 mins on the phone.

Having recently phoned them, a lady confirmed that the system does not allow for a zero entry and it should have at the very least copied the previous years income for my partner but obviously had not.

Now if I'm guilty of anything here its for not opening the letters sooner but where does one stand when the mistake on on the part of HRMC, its likely they are going to want money back (quite rightly) but how will this go about, are they likely to want instant payment, part payment, reduction in credits being paid etc etc

Any experience of such a situation where HRMC have made the mistake would be very welcome, in case anyone is wondering how I know for certain that it was them, they have this years income recorded correctly for the both of us! its the predicted income which for my partner was the same which they have not correctly entered into the computer!!!

Yours in confusion

nannytone_2

after you re new your tax credits, they send you a new award letter.

it is your responsibility to check the award and imform them if anything is incorrect.

so it will be classed as your fault i'm afraid

they will re claim this money by lowering your award until the over payment is re paid

benefitbaby

As noted by nannytone tax credit recipients are required to chsck the award notices for accuracy and report any errors to HMRC within one month, HMRC then have to one month to remedy the issue and so on.
See http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/things-go-wrong/where-to-start/rights.htm

If you are within the month period you need to notify HMRC immediately (and confirm it in writing). If you are outside the month and you want to dispute the decision you need to do this on a TC846 form and you may want to have a look here for what happens
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/things-go-wrong/overpayments/dispute.htm

HMRC can recovery an overpayment in a number of ways (usually by reducing your award) butif this would cause financial hardship they have to consider this, see
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/things-go-wrong/overpayments/repaying.htm

Icequeen99

The info you received was incorrect, the system can take a zero income and if nothing is entered it will use zero. I have have seen dozens of cases where this has happened. Self-employed people often declare losses, which goes down as zero.

First step is to contact HMRC and get them to correct the award going forward. They will adjust your payments for the rest of the year.

I can't see a dispute being successful in this case because although HMRC failed in their responsibilities, so did you by not checking the award notice so there is fault on both sides.

Main thing is to get it corrected.

IQ