WTC Overpayment Query

MrsCuzo2B

Hi

I have received a notice saying I have had a £1700 overpayment. This is due to my partner being taken off Incapacity Benefit, which he got since before 1995 and never used to be counted, to being put on contribution based ESA in the support group, and because it wasn't clear that the longevity of his previous benefit couldn't be counted, and this being taxable now, I didn't report it at the time. Apart from the fact he was in hospital for 5 months last year when this happened.
I'm in 2 minds whether to even attempt to appeal this, as I understand now it's an income change, but it's not made clear to people.
As I don't have a spare £1700 lying around, I would need to negotiate a payment plan, but can't afford the 12 months that is generally used. I know you can negotiate for longer, but we're currently putting away £325 a month between us to pay for our wedding and honeymoon next year, which is already booked, and we are tied into contracts and T&C's for. Will HMRC take this into account as an existing debt when negotiating a payment plan? I'm petrified that they will insist on us using this money to be paid to them, causing us to have to move, or worse, cancel our plans, meaning we would loose everything we have already paid towards it.
Realistically we can afford about £30 a month now after all our expenses and what we are putting towards the wedding/ honeymoon, has anyone else had experience of this, or similar, and can give me some advice on what to do?

Thanks.

PS I have an appointment with my local CAB on Friday too.

stroptart

If you still get tax credits paid now, they generally reduce your payments by 10 to 25% to recover the overpayment. If you don't get any payments now, that's when you can agree a payment plan. I don't know if they ask about all of your expenditure or just the essentials.

MrsCuzo2B

Thanks for the advice guys.

I've kind of accepted I'm going to have to suck it up, but I'm more concerned they will see our outgoings when we come to negotiate a payment plan and not consider the money going towards our wedding as an expense that can be counted, even though we are committed via contracts with the suppliers. I'm worried they will insist on this money being used to pay the overpayment, meaning we won't be able to afford the payments to those suppliers. Does anyone know, if I can include this as an expense when doing a personal budget?