HMRC Debt Help. (Be nice I'm new)

Emaat90

Hi all. Please feel free to move if in the wrong place. This will also be long, so please please bare with me.


I was claiming in 2013 as a single working parent with childcare for one child (I only have one)

I recieved my renewal and filled it out, sent it back before July.
Heard nothing from them after that, payments were still being made.

I moved out on 31st October 2013 after rekindling my relationship.
I called within a week, to let them know that I wanted to end the claim (me and my partner didn't want to make a new claim because we are entitled to silly money and it's more hassle than it's worth)
My address was changed at the same time.
My payments stopped, so one assumed everything was fine! Please note, I LEFT MY PROPERTY 31st OCTOBER 2013.

Roll around January, I had a letter from HMRC with the "summary" so to speak of your year just gone. Everything was zero and the details were correct, mind put at ease, I filed it away. Great! Still with me I hope?

March comes along.. Uh oh.. A brown letter, out of the blue, HMRC debt letter saying I owe them 6.5k (roughly) and a letter explaining they will take my things to repay the debt. So as you can imagine, I go into overdrive and majorly worry WHY I owe this debt as nothing was explained in the letter, part of me thinking it was a scam, but I rang the number anyway.
Explained to the lady on the phone, she couldn't tell me why, but she insisted I start paying back the debt to stop people coming round and taking my things.
I was 6 months pregnant and not needing the stress began paying £55 a month (leaving me with pennies to live off really).

I requested dispute forms with guidance from the lady from hmrc. I also rang tax credits who explained that I "might" have ticked the wrong box at the end of the renewal, "circumstances have changed" instead of nothing has changed. But he was sketchy about this.
He told me they sent me a letter dated 6th November 2013, so I explained that it was 6 days after I moved so I had missed it! He didn't care and said that I must dispute with my evidence.

Phew. Now, remember, I had a letter in JANUARY from HMRC summarising my last years benefit which resulted in zero. So they knew I had moved by January, yet they had sent no other letters? I'm a bit confused there. Then they did send me a copy of this letter asking to call them in April this year... Very helpful, not.

I filled out my dispute forms and wrote an A4 letter as to WHY and HOW between HMRC and myself there must have been a genuine lapse in communication. I gave dates etc and when I had contacted them.
In May (when my baby was born! Busy busy) I recieved a letter from HMRC saying they find me liable for the debt, basically my dispute had been quashed.

Now I need help...
I think there is blame both sides here, I am not being dishonest, I cannot remember if I ticked changed or unchanged circumstance and would have rectified it if I had got a letter or been contacted. But now they have refused my dispute?

Come December, I won't have income to settle the 6k?? What then?
I could really do with the £55 I pay out each month!

I've only just got round to sorting this all out now as I am just starting to think straight with not getting full nights sleep as I have a new baby. This is stress I need to get sorted and HMRC are seemingly useless.

Any advice would be helpful. I am new so be nice . Thanks! x

Icequeen99

Hi

It is difficult to advise without being able to understand what has happened and I am struggling with your time line, it just doesn't make sense.

You are saying you were paid between 6 April 2013 and 31 October 2013 as a single person. In October you informed them you were going to move in with a partner and your claim was ended.

In January you say you got a letter showing zero and then you say you got the debt demand in March.

This doesn't make sense - if it was renewal related (not ticking the change box) that wouldn't have happened until May/June/July 2014. They would have sent you renewal forms to finalise your claim for the period 6 April - 31 October 2013.

It sounds more likely that they have decided you were not entitled for the payments between April and October and have carried out some sort of compliance exercise. But again, the debt wouldn't actually be due until after the end of the tax year, so you wouldn't have received a demand letter in March.

Some questions for you:

1. Did you receive any payments after you reported the change?

2. On the notice you received in January 2014 - what does the award period show on the top? And was the amount awarded correct?

3. On the debt letter in March - what period does it say the debt is for.

You may have taken the wrong action in disputing, it might have been an appeal.

You probably need to get some advice from someone who can see your papers because what they are telling you just doesn't fit with your time line.

IQ

Icequeen99

blondebubbles wrote: »

Unfortunately there isn't a great deal that can be done now as you are out with the timescale for disputes, it is now 3 months from the date of the decision.

What you have said does not seem to follow normal procedure.

If there was an issue with the renewal you received in 2013, your claim would have terminated after 31st July 2013 and a letter sent at that time. Unless for some reason you didn't have the standard deadline for renewals.

I agree the procedure doesn't look right - but you could be right that when the payments stopped in October 2013 it was a termination for non-renewal after the 12/13 cycle, for some reason later than normal.

OP - did you return your renewal papers that you got in the summer of 2013. Did you get a final award notice for 2012/13?

IQ

merlin68

Are you sure the letter said it would take your things to pay your debt never heard of this before. they would have to have instructed baliffs to remove property doesn't make sense at all. I currently owe £2200 to HMRC for unpaid tax and never had all this just rang up and organised to pay back £100 a month. even when we owed tax credits it was a simple matter of setting up a payment plan.

Lioness_Twinkletoes

Did you not have a mail redirection service in place?