childcare overpayment - help needed

shedboy94

moniruk wrote: »

Yes they were attending childcare during the time my wife was working. My children are aged 7 and 8. Before my wife started work i contacted HMRC and was told we were entitled to help with childcare. Thats the only reason we decided she should start work to get some experience as she has just qualified as a child carer.

So your children were aged 7+8, therefore presumably at school all day, yet the costs were £125pw each?
When during the day was the childcare being used??

moniruk

yes thats correct. My wife was working from 4pm to 7pm Mon.-Thur and 4pm to 8pm on Friday. This is when we had childcare.

moniruk

As far as I know, we fulfilled all the criteria to claim childcare. The only reason they have now refused it is because they have assumed we could not have possibly made those payments because our bank statements do not show the cash being withdrawn. This to me does not seem like a valid criteria to refuse childcare. Also the fact the the compliance officer was so rude and told me he doesn't care makes me think they are refusing valid claims for no apparent reason other than taking them to appeal. Anyway thank you everyone for all your help and advise. I will of course appeal the decision and hopefully get a positive result.

Gentile

Sounds all too wierd to me. You have two kids in school and instead of taking care of them in the evening your wife decided to instead take care of someone else's kids ?

I am not surprised you are being investigated.

notanewuser

moniruk wrote: »

yes thats correct. My wife was working from 4pm to 7pm Mon.-Thur and 4pm to 8pm on Friday. This is when we had childcare.

So where were you?

moniruk

I was at work, I work full time and I dont get home till around 7.30 pm.
As I have said, this was only temporary while my wife gains some work experience. My wife has worked very hard for the past 4 years to become a qualified child carer so this looked like the perfect opportunity even though we would end up spending out of our own pocket for childcare we thought it was worth the effort.

shedboy94

moniruk wrote: »

yes thats correct. My wife was working from 4pm to 7pm Mon.-Thur and 4pm to 8pm on Friday. This is when we had childcare.

You do seem to have an answer for everything that is thrown at you......presumably you were working till 7-8pm every night as well?
So basically your wife took a 16hr a week, cash in hand job, possibly paying NMW = £99.04, even though the childcare was going to cost £250. The max assistance from TC's is 70% = £175 which meant £75 would be paid by yourselves, giving a net gain of £24.04.
If indeed your wife was earning approx £100 cash in hand, presumably the bank statements provided would have shown the other £150pw being withdrawn to pay the childcare provider?
What kind of childcare provider was it?

shedboy94

moniruk wrote: »

I was at work, I work full time and I dont get home till around 7.30 pm.
As I have said, this was only temporary while my wife gains some work experience. My wife has worked very hard for the past 4 years to become a qualified child carer so this looked like the perfect opportunity even though we would end up spending out of our own pocket for childcare we thought it was worth the effort.

Unsure why it would take 4 years to train in childcare.....but anyway, if she had spent 4 years training to be a childcare provider, why didn't she become a childminder - income coming in and no childcare costs to pay out?

bebewoo

Stop picking on the OP, the tax credits folk at HMRC think they own the world, a lot of people have been stung by their random decisions.
Unfortunately they are a law onto themselves with no regulator, the OP is in big trouble here as once they make a crazy decision they will stick with it.
He really needs to contact his MP.

Horseunderwater

As all of the calls are recorded these days - it would be a good idea to request copies of those as evidence of what has actually been said, then take that along to the MP along with any relevent TC legislation.