Help With Child Tax Credit Problem needed

creamtea_2

http://familytaxcredit.forumco.com/
Yes the TC Dept make loads of errors, give wrong advice over the phone, dont understand the administrative rules they are applying and its affected maternity rights, disability rights, low income families and others then we are accused of being unreasonable!"! see the forum above and support the campaign for justice please. also millions of letters and complaints go in storage unanswered!!
:A

creamtea_2

http://www.taxcreditoverpayment.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/2.html

Gaz83

The bottom line is, and I'm not judging anyone, I worked with NTC for 3 years and for every error I seen that I genuinely sympathised with, I seen 3 more that were caused by applicant error.

At least 70% of the problems I seen could have been avoided had an applicant taken 5 minutes of their time to read their award notices and let us know of any errors, but instead most of them didn't do that and left it up to us Helpline staff to try and correct any errors eleven months later at renewal time.

There are a great number of errors caused by Helpline staff (who are trained apallingly, may I add, I possibly caused quite a few myself but if you don't bother training your staff, what do you expect?) and the computer systems and to those people I would say yes, appeal to the full extent, but to people who know that they could have done something about it but didn't, they're the ones who are clogging up the appeals system by overloading it.

kelloggs36

Well, my case was caused purely and simply by computer error. I gave the details correctly, but received an overpayment letter a year later because the computer had doubled our income!!! I noticed this immediately on the notification and rang them and told them. I was told not to worry that it would be sorted out, but received further letters. I was then told that it was indeed computer error, but they couldn't correct it and because of this, the recovery would continue and it did. All the time, I had NOT actually been overpaid. I complained via my MP who was told that although they were aware of the problem, they could not stop the recovery! Eventually I complained and got my money back plus compensation but it was extremely stressful as each letter referred to the overpayment, but there never had been an overpayment.

dundeedoll_2

Computer error for me too! Have 2 children (13 & 9 in April 2004) April 2004 my payments suddenly stopped (no letter, just noticed no payment in bank) I rang & questioned this only to be told: "Oh, your children have 'slipped off the system'. We'll send an e-mail to R&D & it should be sorted in a couple of weeks"
Here we are in June 2007 & guess what!! NO IT'S NOT SORTED!!!!

System

I have to agree with Gaz23 in that a large portion of the overpayment disputes are entirely due to claimants failing to do something as simple as read their award notices or tell the TCO of a change in their circumstances.

Only a few weeks ago I dealt with a couple who came to our office all guns blazing demanding to know why they were getting letters asking them to pay back some money.

Theirs was due entirely to an increase in income which they failed to tell the TCO about. On explaining that their award notices told them that they had to report any increase over a certain amount the wife admitted she never read the award notices. They are still going to waste the TCO's time to dispute it though. And there was no apology for the abuse they reined on the staff when they first came in.

But as Gaz23 said there are some genuine TCO errors/ computer b*##s ups too and I have every sympathy for those people especially those on a low income who because of their circumstances and the level of the payments they often receive usually end up with demands for several thousand £'s. I would always encourage those people to fight

donnalove

lol had to laugh when we had notification of our overpayment few years ago.
there reason that we were overpaid was that my hubbys income wasn't on the form. BUT IT WAS. i sent them copies of all awards showing hubby's income, but they were still insistant it wasn't there lol. we did eventually get it sorted and i had money back plus compensation. But it seems to me THEY DON'T READ CORRORSPONDANCE THAT IS SENT TO THEM. Its like they take no notice of what you are saying and make there own version up.

it was infact the computer as it wasn't tapering awards.I did notice the day i got award and rang as it was way to high, but was told i was entitled to more money lol.

superpup

welshcakes wrote: »

I really sincerely empathise with you.

... Consequently they won't pay the CTC element for my daughter for last year).

Like yourself, I am really seething. If I wasn't entitled to it, fair enough, but I was. TC always declares they can't entertain backdated claims as the system doesn;t allow them to make retrospective alterations but if it's a question of them trying to claw back (even when like the OP, the entitlement was valid), amazingly the systems allow them to retrospectively alter anything they want.

Rant over (I think)

Hi

Are you saying that they won't backdate payments for your daughter after she continued in further education?

Sorry if I come across as a bit slow but I only realised I hadn't received tax credits for my eldest daughter for a yr at 6th form and 2 yrs at college until last week. I haven't received anything for a while because I'd been overpaid as my salary had gone up dramatically. They wrote to me 2 wks ago saying I owed them £1,000 overpayment as my youngest daughter didn't qualify any more as she's left school (she hasn't, she's just done her 1st yr in 6th form). I rang them up and told them she was still in education and they said no problem, we'll adjust it and you probably won't owe any money to us.

A few days later I had a new award and just over £40 went into my bank account. I read the extra sheet of paper with the award and saw the section 'notify us if the number of children over 16 and in full time education is wrong'. I rang them again and explained about the 3yrs education my eldest daughter had received and the guy said 'well, it looks like we owe you some money then'.

3 days later I had just over £3,000 paid into my bank account. :eek: for 3 yrs underpayments. So they do backdate it.

Sorry for the long post and don't think I've explained it particularly well. :rolleyes: