£6000 WTC overpayment!

Pips_Mum

Hello Lovely MSE'ers

Please could any of you give me some advice as I am worrying myself sick.

June 2012 I was made redundant from my Full Time job, my partner was still working 37 hours a week. I notified Tax office and they started us on Tax Credits of £697 a month. I started receiving contribution based JSA and then in August I switched to Maternity Allowance which ran out end of April 13, again I notified them. I am still not working as I have our 2 under 4s to look after and until 1 starts school in Sept we cannot afford the childcare.

In July my Partner got made redundant and was out of work for 6 weeks, he claimed 4 weeks of contribution JSA and then started a new job. I notified them of all of these changes.

Our total income for 12/13 including JSA and the final part of my wage was £27,000. The Tax office said that they don't include MA as an Earning.

I did my renewal over the phone and then yesterday we had a letter saying there had been a £6000 overpayment :eek:, they were going to reclaim it and our tax credits now will only be £85 a month.

Does that sound right to anyone???

Apart from the 6 weeks that OH wasn't working there has always been 24 hours or more worked per week and as I say our total income was well iunder the £75,000 threshold!

Any ideas why they think we were not entitled to Tax Credits last year?

I appreciate that there were a heck of a lot of changes for them to keep up with but I just can't understand why we would owe them £6000??

Thank you in advance for any replys x x

ky822000

Have you checked the letter carefully? I was asked for about 4.5k a couple of years ago and after I stopped hyperventilating I realised they had logged my partners wages correctly but then added my partners wages to mine! Honestly, if I had been earning that much on my own we would never have been claiming!!

What do the sums on the letter say ?

Icequeen99

Pips_Mum wrote: »

Hello Lovely MSE'ers

Please could any of you give me some advice as I am worrying myself sick.

June 2012 I was made redundant from my Full Time job, my partner was still working 37 hours a week. I notified Tax office and they started us on Tax Credits of £697 a month. I started receiving contribution based JSA and then in August I switched to Maternity Allowance which ran out end of April 13, again I notified them. I am still not working as I have our 2 under 4s to look after and until 1 starts school in Sept we cannot afford the childcare.

In July my Partner got made redundant and was out of work for 6 weeks, he claimed 4 weeks of contribution JSA and then started a new job. I notified them of all of these changes.

Our total income for 12/13 including JSA and the final part of my wage was £27,000. The Tax office said that they don't include MA as an Earning.

I did my renewal over the phone and then yesterday we had a letter saying there had been a £6000 overpayment :eek:, they were going to reclaim it and our tax credits now will only be £85 a month.

Does that sound right to anyone???

Apart from the 6 weeks that OH wasn't working there has always been 24 hours or more worked per week and as I say our total income was well iunder the £75,000 threshold!

Any ideas why they think we were not entitled to Tax Credits last year?

I appreciate that there were a heck of a lot of changes for them to keep up with but I just can't understand why we would owe them £6000??

Thank you in advance for any replys x x

Firstly the threshold is nowhere near 75,000 (unless you have many children and maximum childcare costs). When you were made redundant how much was your OH earning roughly?

How many children do you have?

IQ

mel77

Hi

I don't know much about the calculations but as a general principle, if you've notified them of all the changes at the right time, and the overpayment is a result of their error, then they shouldn't be asking you to repay it.

I'd ask them to provide a detailed explanation of how the overpayment occurred - you have a right to appeal but you only get a month to appeal - their letter should tell you how.

Hope that helps x

Icequeen99

mel77 wrote: »

Hi

I don't know much about the calculations but as a general principle, if you've notified them of all the changes at the right time, and the overpayment is a result of their error, then they shouldn't be asking you to repay it.

I'd ask them to provide a detailed explanation of how the overpayment occurred - you have a right to appeal but you only get a month to appeal - their letter should tell you how.

Hope that helps x

That is not strictly true (even though this site suggests it). Even if HMRC make a mistake, if you don't notice it and let them know it won't be written off. So if you told them, for example, that you no longer qualified for the disability element and they left it on the claim and sent you an award notice, you would be expected to tell them the new notice was wrong. Telling them of the changes in the first place isn't enough.

IQ

Chrissie72

That does sound like a MASSIVE overpayment! I mean, it's like they were overpaying for 10 YEARS or something. I would go to the CAB to see if they can help you deal with this.

I am sure they can't drop your tax credits £600 a month either. From nearly £700 a month to £85!

Pips_Mum

We have 2 children, 1 8 months and 1 who is 4, as I am not working then we have no childcare costs.

They are recalculating currently as I had over estimated OHs income by £2000.

On the form it definately shows me as not working and my income including JSA as £3709 which is correct.

His was £304 JSA and £25,000 income (as I say this was actually £23,000 now I have added it up properly)

The figures show 13/14 as £4686 but reduction of £4688 due to our income????

Icequeen99

Without seeing the paperwork it will be impossible to determine what caused the overpayment.

The £700 a month sounds far too high for a couple on your income.

I suspect there are a couple of explanations as to what went wrong and they are worth checking.

The first is that they put you down as income based JSA rather than contribution based with would have meant your OH's income was ignored.

The second is that somehow they took the wrong estimated income.

You need to have a look on the notice that you got when they awarded you the £700 per month. That is where the error will be.

Even if you told them of the changes, you must check the notices so if there is an error on the notice and you didn't tell them then it will be difficult to do anything about it.

IQ

jazzypinkpuppet

yes the £700 seems very high for your income. My husband and I have two children, no childcare and have a combined income not far off of what you have and we receive about £130 a month we don't have an under one year old though.
I would give them a call and see what has gone wrong, hope you get it sorted soon

FBaby

June 2012 I was made redundant from my Full Time job, my partner was still working 37 hours a week. I notified Tax office and they started us on Tax Credits of £697 a month.

It sounds like something went wrong there. If your partner was still working and earning 23K (or £25K as it was notified), it doesn't make sense that you would have been entitled to such a large amount. Did they disregard his income when that change was made?

I am wondering if it has something to do with childcare costs? I assume your child was in childcare when you were both working and got WTC mainly because of childcare fees. Could it be that you stop these when you were made redundant, but the £697 would have been taking childcare costs into account?

Caz3121

You need to dig out all the correspondance you have received from them

With no childcare costs, the £697 per month would be applicable for a joint income of around £12k

What was your joint income for 2011/12