Working tax credit overpayment

Blake20

So my wife filled in her renewal for family tax credit
Now we have never been entitled to working tax credit before so imagine my surprise when I get a very large sum of money deposited into my account just under £4000
I wait till I get reward notice and sure enough they have made a !!!! up on the income figures

Also same day another £80 paid into bank and to be repeated every week until further notice according to reward notice

Wife has rang them to inform of mistake and they said they will send a new reward notice out to us
Now this being their mistake do I have to repay it back?

peterx

Depends on if you want to go to jail.

nannytone_2

of course you have to pay it back!

you have said that the figures on the AWARD ( not reward ... what do you think they should reward you for?) letter were wrong, sp ypu clearly know that you have no entitlement to this money

Icequeen99

Morally, yes it is taxpayers money and you know it is not yours.

Technically, you could argue not. The way HMRC have worded their dispute policy allows people in this situation to keep the money in my view.

In looking at a dispute HMRC look at whether you have met your responsibilities and whether they have met theirs.

If they made the mistake in putting the income figure down - then they have failed in their responsibilities. If you have met yours by telling them of the mistake as soon as you get the award notice then it should result in a full write off.

Fill in the TC846 and refer them to their own code of practice 26. Be interesting to see what happens. This is a definite weakness in COP 26.

As I say, i would hope as a taxpayer you would pay back the money as you know it is not yours.

IQ

[Deleted User]

IQ - Really like the advice, I can't put into words how good your advice has been to so many people!

As for all of the other bull !!!! posts on here - why post if you have no idea what you are talking about.

CRISPIANNE3

Blake20 wrote: »

So my wife filled in her renewal for family tax credit
Now we have never been entitled to working tax credit before so imagine my surprise when I get a very large sum of money deposited into my account just under £4000
I wait till I get reward notice and sure enough they have made a !!!! up on the income figures

Also same day another £80 paid into bank and to be repeated every week until further notice according to reward notice

Wife has rang them to inform of mistake and they said they will send a new reward notice out to us
Now this being their mistake do I have to repay it back?

Good to see the silly season is still alive and kicking.

tokenfield

Icequeen99 wrote: »

Morally, yes it is taxpayers money and you know it is not yours.

Technically, you could argue not. The way HMRC have worded their dispute policy allows people in this situation to keep the money in my view.

In looking at a dispute HMRC look at whether you have met your responsibilities and whether they have met theirs.

If they made the mistake in putting the income figure down - then they have failed in their responsibilities. If you have met yours by telling them of the mistake as soon as you get the award notice then it should result in a full write off.

Fill in the TC846 and refer them to their own code of practice 26. Be interesting to see what happens. This is a definite weakness in COP 26.

As I say, i would hope as a taxpayer you would pay back the money as you know it is not yours.

IQ

I came across a similar situation a few weeks back. HMRC issued a 2013/14 award letter even after they had sent an earlier letter a few weeks before saying that there will be no further WTC due owing to them ceasing work. They too had about £1400 paid to them.
When HMRC were advised about this they accepted that they had made a blunder and that the money and award letter should never have been sent.

HMRC told them that when the demand for it to be repaid is received, they must dispute the demand as it was clearly the fault of HMRC and had nothing to do with the claimant.

In this case HMRC told the claimant that they would be able to keep the money if they wanted to.

Blake20

Thank you for those who gave informed responses

Ice queen thank you for you reply,the wording on the cop is the reason for me to start this thread as I am reading the same way as you

This is why I was asking about this in the first place as from reading the code of conduct i was unsure

I was curious as to the outcome from the experience of people who this has happened to or people know of

I'm not holding much hope as to getting to keep it but obviously it would be very nice but morally I would probably lose alot of sleep over it

But I'm sure I would get over it

tokenfield

Blake20 wrote: »

Thank you for those who gave informed responses

Ice queen thank you for you reply,the wording on the cop is the reason for me to start this thread as I am reading the same way as you

This is why I was asking about this in the first place as from reading the code of conduct i was unsure

I was curious as to the outcome from the experience of people who this has happened to or people know of

I'm not holding much hope as to getting to keep it but obviously it would be very nice but morally I would probably lose alot of sleep over it

But I'm sure I would get over it

Morals don't mean a thing. If HMRC cannot legally collect it from you - that's it - you keep it! Their problem, they caused it, so they should suffer the consequences.

Blake20

Thanks tokenfield for your replys
I'm sure they will not write this amount off
Be nice but i can't see it

Is there anybody who has been in this situation out there
And what was the outcome