Tax Credits Overpayment

welshiex

So basically I lived with my ex partner who was over 25, with no children and me being under 25 I am in no way eligible for tax credits alone but was advised I had to be entered onto application as we were living together. The money always went straight into his bank, I never saw a penny (not even exaggerating) so break up ensues and all is fine and dandy until I receive letters saying I owe £400 in overpayment that was June just after split, I spoke to them multiple times when finally in sept received letter saying overpayment will be deducted from future claim (of which obviously I am not eligible for 5 years) early feb I receive another letter informing of overpayment after contact with my ex this is due to him accidentally restarting joint claim instead of single (how convenient) now the financial year is up I dread the post coming, fearing another letter from HMRC as I never saw a penny of this money and to be truthful don't have the funds to pay back. I have read that as a joint claim I am just as responsible for this amount but do I have any options at all to fight this?
Thanks guys!

zagfles

Unfortunately this is the way tax credits work - the form you signed will have stated they can recover the overpayment from either of you, and they usually seek to recover them 50/50 - see http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/tcmanual/TCM0230010.htm

It can be very unfair in a lot of circumstances. The theory is that your "household" benefitted from the overpayment so you both have to pay it back - even if the tax credits payments were only paid to one of you. The usual hypocrisy of govt - they make a big deal about who gets paid the tax credits within the household, eg they insist CTC gets paid to the main carer and the WTC gets paid to the eligible worker, but when you split they want the payments back from both of you rather than the person they paid!

Icequeen99

welshiex wrote: »

So basically I lived with my ex partner who was over 25, with no children and me being under 25 I am in no way eligible for tax credits alone but was advised I had to be entered onto application as we were living together. The money always went straight into his bank, I never saw a penny (not even exaggerating) so break up ensues and all is fine and dandy until I receive letters saying I owe £400 in overpayment that was June just after split, I spoke to them multiple times when finally in sept received letter saying overpayment will be deducted from future claim (of which obviously I am not eligible for 5 years) early feb I receive another letter informing of overpayment after contact with my ex this is due to him accidentally restarting joint claim instead of single (how convenient) now the financial year is up I dread the post coming, fearing another letter from HMRC as I never saw a penny of this money and to be truthful don't have the funds to pay back. I have read that as a joint claim I am just as responsible for this amount but do I have any options at all to fight this?
Thanks guys!

If you were part of the joint claim then you are legally liable for the whole debt just the same as he is although HMRC policy is only to ask you for half.

If he had correctly ended the joint claim when you separated, there is no way he could have 'accidentally' restarted the joint claim. He would have had to fill in a new claim form which you would have had to sign.

IQ

welshiex

Thank you both for your help, I thought this was pretty much the case. I might try approach my ex partner to appeal to his fair side to agree to pay full amount... (Not very hopeful tbf) with regard to the joint claim restarting I'm just going off what he last told me which if the past has anything to do with it is probably entirely fictional. Thanks again for your help!

SmokieJoe

When the household changed, did you contact tax credit yourself or leave it to him to notify? They can't take an OP from a previous joint claim against a new single claim (at the moment), so sort of indicates the joint claim continued into the new tax year or was re-submitted as a joint claim.

If you have spoken to TC and confirmed the joint claim ended, as indicated above any further joint claim would have required 2 signatures. You would need to report this as a suspected fraudulent claim to allow you to dispute any OP attributed to you for the period following the break-up.

welshiex

I contacted them myself in fact I was the first one to inform of the change as he was never good with paperwork. I will contact them tomorrow for clarification at least I might no what to expect instead of just waiting for the postie to deliver bad news.