HMRC Working tax credits error. Please help

TIMBO

Good Morning.
In August 2009 I was retired though ill health but my last day of employment was in dispute as my employer had backdated it , in my termination letter, to June 2009.
In September I notified HMRC of my change of circumstances including that the date of termination was in dispute for the reason above.
HMRC have been sending me two differing tax notices from two differnt offices, despite numerous letters advising them to correct their records.
HMRC are still chasing me for £7,000 overpayment as they state " I did not keep them adequately informed". I submitted an appeal under the extra statutory concession (esc) A19, but they "investigated" and said I was still liable and no further communication was allowed into the matter unless I could provide new information. .
Please can soemone offer me any advice.

The dispute is that , in my opinion, I gave the sufficient information to HMRC to update their records as I notified them I was no longer employed, and the two dates that were, currently, being used to determine my last day of employment. But HMRC are stating they did not get a reply to a request for further information so they have acted correctly by not updating their records and correcting my payments.
Being disabled ( hence being retired through ill health) I am struggling to deal with HMRC
Any help most appreciated
Thanks
Tim
P.S. I am still trying to get HMRC to honour a Subject access request for a copy of all my records.

Horseunderwater

Did you or did you not tell them that you had stopped work? It is not the date that matters here but if you actually told them - either in writing or by a phone call. This is why you have an overpayment. All you had to do was tell them that you ended work on the date in August 09 and all would have been fine. HMRC did not really need to know as such - yes an exact date would have been better, but the dispute was not with HMRC but your employer. You might have had a 2 month overpayment at most. So now you have to repay £7k which cannot be from just one year surely? You must have known that money was still being paid out to you, so you could have put this aside and stopped it at any point. You're not going to win this one IMO.
I do not think an SAR will help either.

xylophone

correcting my payments.

You clearly understood that the payments were no longer due to you because you sent

numerous letters advising them to correct their records.

If the money kept arriving, you should have kept it in a separate account pending HMRC's final decision?

You spent it knowing that it was not yours to spend?

Or you still have the money but are disputing repayment?

Icequeen99

Is this about tax or working tax credit?

ESC A19 is a tax process and is nothing to do with tax credits.

IQ

TIMBO

Hi
Thanks you for your kind reply. I did definately advise them I was no longer working. They insisted I provide a date I stopped working. So I provided them with both the date in the letter and the date I was advised would actually be used. There was some confusion as to entitlement to tax relief as it was a medical retirement and I had not been paid for some months due to running out of sick pay. Also I had a large final pay off for leave and lui of notice Also I started to receive my ill health pension, which was for a significantly lesser amount than my salary. I believed, ( wrongly I now know), that having told HMRC of my situation they would correct their payments to me. They did indeed change , but as it transpires not to the right amount .
Bearing in mind I was unable to manage my day to day affairs due to my illness I was not in a position to keep on top of this.

TIMBO

Hi Thanks for your reply,
Previously I located an artilce about "ESC A19 " on the moneysaving expert web site. It read, to me, that this was a way of contesting the repayment as the fault had been due to HMRC not myself. If it is not the case then I misunderstood.

TIMBO

Hi
Thank you also for your kind reply.
As I mentioned to the previous kind poster, I was not aware that I was recieving amounts of tax credits I was not entitled to, especially as the amounts changed having notified them I was no longer employed and living on a ill health retirement. My income dropped significantly and I was assesed aas being entitled to free prescriptions and incapacity benefit.. The deteroration in my health meant I was virtally incapable dealing with things such as this.

Caz3121

But if you stopped working you would not be entitled to any Working tax credits so the payment should have stopped completely not changed