How long can tax credits go back and ask for cash?

spike2012

thank you for all the quick, informative replies. I guess I said "our" debt as I feel obliged as we are married. Whats mine is hers and vice versa but I understand the it will "fall on her" to repay. (but we will both pay if we have to)

What I find strange in this is the comments made by the caller in regards to "their poor filing" or comments along those lines, but the comment in regards to the £700 being joint debt made sense (and that our claim is a new claim) Thanks for that.

We will be contacting the agency involved to try and shed some light on all the dates etc. If it turns out we have to repay we will repay as quickly as possible but I hope they are understanding in situations such as this.

P.S Why would we not have received anything in the post about this? Whenever we say a slight change in circumstances in our claim we get a whole new approx 12 page document with all the figures on again, yet when it comes to something as important as this we haven't received anything in writing?