Tax Credits Overpayment help!

CrazyLady33

Hey guys,

This is kinda long winded but will try to make it short whilst trying to keep all the information in.

So we claimed when my husband was working and I was still on long term sick... got better after many years and went back to work. We phoned working tax credit and told them this but nothing seemed to happen. We phoned them again a few months later giving them details like my monthly wage and was told our claim would be corrected and we would be sent a letter. Couple weeks later we got no letter so called again, gave them all my work details again and this time was told it could take a couple of weeks. A couple of weeks passed and we got a new letter with our amended tax credits but nothing on it was different, my income wasn't on it. So AGAIN we called and they said to ignore it as new one was coming, and 4 weeks later it did in which it then said we had been overpaid £2300 and they wanted £1830,56 of it now. And yes it said "now". So after us trying to tell them repeatedly they then get us into debt? On the new letter it said "please inform us of any changes, but don't worry it won't effect your current claim" no kidding you'll just be in debt on your next one...... I guess my kinda question is... Is this right? can they do this? We phoned them horrified and they said we can pay monthly but we want to get a mortgage and that would effect how much we get so if this is right we have no choice but to pay in full, but we have told them countless times about our claim and they did nothing can they seriously ask for it back just like that?

If you read all of that, thank you

CrazyLady33

I guess I'm asking if they can leave it so long after being repeatedly told the details are wrong then send a.. think they called it a notice to pay letter ... and that one with the payment information will follow. Someone said we should appeal it but I don't think that would do any good but to put us in debt after we have been trying to do the right thing

They offered the payment plan but that would effect the mortgage we applied for so would have to pay in full.

So I did this thread for two reasons, one to find out where we stand and IF we can appeal

and second to warn anyone who's details aren't being updated to put that money somewhere safe no matter how many times they tell you it's ok

Icequeen99

You can't appeal unless the actual entitlement decision was wrong (which it doesn't sound like that is the case).

You could try and dispute, but you only have 3 months from the final award notice relating to the year of the overpayment.

You could dispute as long as you didn't receive any award notice which showed that HMRC had made a mistake and not acted on your information.

They will still recover the first 30 days (they have 1 month to make the change) but you may be able to get the next part written off if no award notice was issued and you followed up. Certainly if you contacted them within 30 days of getting the award notice and told them it was wrong then you can dispute. Ring them, ask for a dispute form and if you are in the time limit send it in. Ask them to listen to the call recordings.

There is an argument that says if you knew it was wrong it would have been sensible to put the money aside.

IQ

loisamelia

Start a dispute. We had similar happen to us.
I phoned to chnage my income as I'd just had a baby and wasnt earning so they changed my husbands income to zero and paid us about 6K before sending out any letters. I obviously told them and they started to take back the overpayment after about 6 months.
However, when I had to change my income again they made the same mistake and we owed them about another 6k. We paid back this overpayment for about 6 years and had only cleared half of it when I read somewhere online about disputing the overpayment as it was HMRCs mistake and I had given them correct info, they hadnt done the right thing with it. They agreed and paid us back every penny we had previously paid back and wrote off the outstanding overpayment.
There is a form or advice online somewhere I believe but this was 3 years ago so I cant remember where. But definately dispute any overpayment where you gave them the right info and they made a mistake with it. Good luck

graham230968

Just come across this whilst looking for my thread from earlier on in the week, me and my partner are going through exactly the same thing here! We have to pay back £6000 (allegedly) my partner has been in contact with them as soon as our circumstances have ever changed, they had me down as proposing to earn £12.500 for the last financial year! My partner would have never given them this figure, I was earning that as an 'improver' after serving my joinery apprenticeship 25 years ago for gods sake! Unfortunately due to the fact that the country is on its 'bottom' and has been for the last few years, I have found myself having to do other things at times - taxi driving for instance, therefore I have been eligible for tax credits!! As soon as I started back in regular work they were informed - my partner asked for our tax credits to be cancelled, only to be told that it's based on the previous years figure and not to bother so to speak! We are currently going through the minefield of requesting recorded telephone conversations etc to prove they have been told to cancel etc. Even that might be a fruitless exercise, I was told by them on the telephone yesterday that even though they may have said this to us verbally, it is our job to check the award letter, and if it is found that a customer service representative has given us the wrong information then he/she may need additional training or may be simply giving us old information that needs updating!!
What a way to carry on.
I am definitely going to take this further, somebody in a big house somewhere who has devised this system needs a 5 year course in common sense.
:mad:

dl5543

Arghhhh flipping tax credits.... they are a mine field! I've just renewed and noticed they've removed the estimated income checkbox (I lost my P60... silly me!) so I've put an estimate in but there's no where for me to tell them it's an estimate!

Hope you get your issue resolved! I had an overpayment last year but they didnt demand it all back, they just reduced my payments by £5 per week.

loisamelia

Graham, I found this helpful website http://www.advicenow.org.uk/advicenow-guides/problems-with-benefits/tax-credit-overpayments/how-to-write-a-dispute-letter,10216,FP.html

CrazyLady33

Thank you all, sorry been a busy weekend so didn't get to reply. We have phoned and started a dispute now.. well my husband is with your advice because believe it or not i'm in a dispute with DLA been trying to cancel that for 13 months now lol (luckily saved all that money so they can have it when ever they want!) Just makes me laugh now, for all the financial troubles this country has and they complain about all these people on benefits but when we try to be on them correctly or get off them!!! it's impossible!!!

Graham cancelling is impossible because even letters that are done via recorded delivery don't seem to count! We phoned them multiple times saying they had our income wrong but like you kept saying it was based on the previous year... we still kept phoning and got stung this year :mad: