help!!! fraud

law1984

hi i was called in by housing benefit for a interview under caution ive been and turns out housing benefit wasnt aware sine i started work in 2010/march i was in receipt of carrers allowance i thought they were aware,i now have to wait 28 days to hear if i wil go court i am terrified! and now to add to matters i fear tax credits dont know either i dont know what to do/ any help would be very helpfull.

dori2o

law1984 wrote: »

hi i was called in by housing benefit for a interview under caution ive been and turns out housing benefit wasnt aware sine i started work in 2010/march i was in receipt of carrers allowance i thought they were aware,i now have to wait 28 days to hear if i wil go court i am terrified! and now to add to matters i fear tax credits dont know either i dont know what to do/ any help would be very helpfull.

The best thing to do is call tax credits first of all to find out if they are aware. By you doing the chasing up first, if they are unaware then by you coming forwards and volunteering the information, it will mean that any penalty they may impose will be less than it would be if they find out about it from other means.

If they are unaware of the CA then they will recalculate last years award (I'm not sure if they can go back further as there is a rule on how long they have to investigate the figures, I'm sure someone will be along shortly to advise on this). Any money you have been overpaid, will be recovered from this years and future awards. I think the maximum recovery rate is still 25% of the current award, i.e. your payments would reduce by 25% until it is paid back.

Be aware though that HMRC can also impose a penalty for not advising of the change within 1 month of CA starting, and also for not providing details of the money on the renewal. The penalty can be anything upto 100% of the overpayment, but as I said this can be reduced based on whether or not you comply and volunteer information in the event of any investigation.

law1984

thanks for the info i started reciveing carrers in 2003 for my mu and stupidly presumed the all were aware im not a thick person but have been regarding this!!

dori2o

law1984 wrote: »

thanks for the info i started reciveing carrers in 2003 for my mu and stupidly presumed the all were aware im not a thick person but have been regarding this!!

Like I said, the best thing to do is just be honest with tax credits, that way they can use the fact you have come forwards in your favour.

With regards to Housing Benefit, if they do take it to court then again, just be honest.

You have not set out to intentionally defraud the system, you have made an error due to the overly complicated benefits system that exists.

You mention starting work in 2010, before that were you just in receipt of benefits and would be due housing benefit anyway?

Finally, does your tax code take account of the Carers Allowance? It is a taxable benefit so a deduction needs to be included in your tax code in order to collect any tax that may be due on it. If not, or you are not sure, contact the tax office. The number can be found on their website.

shedboy94

dori2o wrote: »

You have not set out to intentionally defraud the system, you have made an error due to the overly complicated benefits system that exists.

To be fair, Tax Credits issue out a renewal pack each year which asks how much income you have received in the previous year. It's not a complicate question and very hard to forget about a specific income for many years in a row.

dori2o

shedboy94 wrote: »

To be fair, Tax Credits issue out a renewal pack each year which asks how much income you have received in the previous year. It's not a complicate question and very hard to forget about a specific income for many years in a row.

That may well be the case. It does not mean an individual has set out to commit benefit fraud by either misunderstanding, or not correctly reading the notes, or by thinking that because it was a state benefit the TCO would already be aware of it.

shedboy94

dori2o wrote: »

That may well be the case. It does not mean an individual has set out to commit benefit fraud by either misunderstanding, or not correctly reading the notes, or by thinking that because it was a state benefit the TCO would already be aware of it.

If that was the case then no-one would declare their correct income, everyone would claim not to have understood, and there would be no convictions for benefit fraud.

Poppie68

Just a quick thought! I hope the OP is not earning over the limit for carers allowance otherwise they will have a 3rd agency after them.

dori2o

shedboy94 wrote: »

If that was the case then no-one would declare their correct income, everyone would claim not to have understood, and there would be no convictions for benefit fraud.

Obviously it seems one of us would rather give the benefit of doubt rather than jumping in with the most extreme views on cases such as this.

Why when it comes to benefits does 'Innocent until proven guilty' seem to be thrown out of the window.

The other point to remember is that is seems the OP was not employed until March 2010, in which case the first Reply Required renewal they may have had to complete could have been in May/June 2011. They could very well have been on an Auto Renewal if the only income they had coming in was benefits and so probably wont have received the TC603Rnotes.

miduck

dori2o wrote: »

Obviously it seems one of us would rather give the benefit of doubt rather than jumping in with the most extreme views on cases such as this.

Why when it comes to benefits does 'Innocent until proven guilty' seem to be thrown out of the window.

The other point to remember is that is seems the OP was not employed until March 2010, in which case the first Reply Required renewal they may have had to complete could have been in May/June 2011. They could very well have been on an Auto Renewal if the only income they had coming in was benefits and so probably wont have received the TC603Rnotes.

Every benefit award notice gives a breakdown of the calculation and states that all changes in circumstances should be notified to the relevant authority. The question here is whether it is reasonable for the OP not to be aware that they were receiving too much - given the length of time involved and the fact that they will have received renewal notices (for HB as well as TC), I do not believe it is.

dori2o

miduck wrote: »

Every benefit award notice gives a breakdown of the calculation and states that all changes in circumstances should be notified to the relevant authority. The question here is whether it is reasonable for the OP not to be aware that they were receiving too much - given the length of time involved and the fact that they will have received renewal notices (for HB as well as TC), I do not believe it is.

Does the OP know how to work it out?

I can bet there are not many people can calculate tax credits, or Housing benefit, many people cannot calculate their own tax to check that it is correct, and the other 2 are far more complicated calculations.

For many people they just accept what they are given.

If the OP says they were under the impression that these departments had already taken the CA into account, who are we to disagree with that statement, unless it can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.