Received a worrying letter from CCSCollect about repayment of overpaid of tax credits

dgi_n

Last year I was overpaid tax credits due to some confusion and misinformation on my part.

I arranged for this money to be paid back to HMRC with a monthly direct debit being set up to take are of this.

Today I received a letter from CCSCollect saying that HMRC has authorised them to recover the full amount and that I have 7 days to repay them.


Can someone advise me on what I should do please.

GuttedTBH

Did you pay it back?

dgi_n

It is being paid back on a plan which was organised by HMRC.

Why have they given the debt to another company to try and recover quicker?

rizla_king

How long have you been paying back for?

http://taxaid.org.uk/info/tax-credits/tax-credits-problems/you-have-received-a-bill-from-hmrc-for-the-overpayment

If you have received a bill for a tax credit overpayment then you may be concerned about how to pay it back. You may also be worried about possible debt recovery action by HMRC.

The demand you receive may seem frightening, but you are entitled to repay the debt over 12 months. Where this would cause you financial hardship you can negotiate a much longer repayment period. This may be as long as up to ten years in exceptional cases.

dgi_n

It started 4/5 months ago and they said the repayments would end in 2016

rizla_king

They are just taking the p sending it to a collector then. You are entitled to 12 months at least to pay back tax credits. Even longer if that is what was agreed. Tell the collector you are on an agreed plan with HMRC that you are entitled to stick to, and that they (the collector) can naff off.

dgi_n

people on other sites have suggested that it is best not to contact CCSCollect at all.

Should I be confident of only dealing with HMRC to take care of this for me?

dgi_n

After going through 5 different phone numbers and endless menus, I got through to a girl at HMRC who told me that she could see that my repayments had been organised and did not understand why the debt was being pursued further.

She told me that she would contact CCSCollect and it would be taken are of. I asked if I could be provided with documentation to evidence this, but she said all their communication was by email. I asked if I could be CCed but was told that wasn't possible as it was all internal mail.

I guess I'll just see what happens.

rizla_king

Good. It was mad this being sent to a collector, so makes sense there was some sort of mistake.