TC Overoayment Recovery

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Really confused.

I have been disputing/appealing a Tax Credits Overpayment for a number of years for the Tax year 2010/2011.

Tax Credits state I owe money for receiving tax credits when I was not employed. They say I stopped working Oct 2010.

In Sept 2010 I phoned Tax Credits to initiate a single parent claim (was not receiving tax credits that year as not entitled), and informed them of kids, childcare and employment, towards end of year informed them of stop in childcare and change of address, beginning of new year I inform them I am not working, and advised I will not get P45 as have not resigned. All hunky dorey.

Now for clarification I was on full pay sick leave from Oct 10 up until Dec 2010, I then took the remainder of my annual leave and went on an unpaid Career Break 2011 until Sept 2011. And was in receipt of income support during that career break.


So after receiving the letter I made a complaint as I couldn't understand how I owed this money as I was only in receipt of tax crediits for a short period of time, and had advised them of all changes within the timescales. After my own investigation and acquiring recorded phonecalls to tax credits. I have found that an Income Support lady contacted Tax Credits and told them I stopped working in October 2010, and referred to me as a 'naughty girl'. And they insist I repay all tax credits from October to January.

After a bit of tooing and frooing I provided them bank statements and pay statements January 2014. I contacted them in February 2014 to confirm receipt of letter, and not heard anything since. I wrongly assumed the matter was closed, until I received a letter end of September 2014 saying they will start deducting overpayments from my current award in October.

So I have written yet another letter, and also forwarded one to my mp. Now regardless they are going to start deducting money from my current payments, which of course is going to put me in a tremendous amount of financial stress. I am annoyed on so many levels. Firstly the short notice in deducting money, I havent had time to prepare for this at all. Secondly not replying to my last letter which provided all the evidence needed to close the case, and thirdly for their sheer stupidity.

They amended all my tax credits based on the comments from an income support rep, which were completely untrue and unfounded, and for the past 4 years I have been fighting to sort this out, with very basic evidence like my payslip. I also spoke to Income Support to complain about the woman and Income Support provided me written confirmation that I was not in receipt of income support until after my employment finished in Jan 11.

Where am I going wrong here?

Icequeen99

It sounds to me like you have used the wrong process - it sounds like you are caught up in the dispute process when in fact you should have appealed the final decision for 10/11 where they removed your employment details.

Appeals end up in an independent tribunal, disputes don't.

You need to get some specialist advice - it may be possible to argue that you were in fact appealing and they should have treated as such as you were disagreeing with an entitlement decision. But it depends on what dates you took action and what you did. There is also another provision called official error (not the same as official error in the dispute process) which could be used to correct the award as the time limit is longer, but again you really need advice on this from someone who knows tax credits well as it is certainly too complex to explain online.

When did you actually inform HMRC you had stopped work? Was it before you started your career break?

IQ

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Icequeen99 wrote: »

It sounds to me like you have used the wrong process - it sounds like you are caught up in the dispute process when in fact you should have appealed the final decision for 10/11 where they removed your employment details.

Appeals end up in an independent tribunal, disputes don't.

You need to get some specialist advice - it may be possible to argue that you were in fact appealing and they should have treated as such as you were disagreeing with an entitlement decision. But it depends on what dates you took action and what you did. There is also another provision called official error (not the same as official error in the dispute process) which could be used to correct the award as the time limit is longer, but again you really need advice on this from someone who knows tax credits well as it is certainly too complex to explain online.

When did you actually inform HMRC you had stopped work? Was it before you started your career break?

IQ

I sent in a complaint letter rather than filled out a specific form so they (Tax Credits) chose what channel my complaint went down. All very confusing.

According to the phonecalls Ive listened to I contacted them the day after I finished my job (Finished on the Sunday called them on the Monday).

I have emailed my MP today, so awaiting confirmation of receipt via them.

It is just becoming more complicated than it needs to be, they are going to start deducting money for something I was entitled to, and then have to pay it all back to me.

I am so annoyed that they have robbed me of the last 9 months of no response, to esculate things, and giving me a 2 week warning of deductions.