Tax Credit Overpayment - DCA Letter

blondie-42

Hi all,

I'm just after a bit of advice before I pick up the phone to Rossendales DCA regarding a letter stating I owe Tax Credit Overpayments.

This dates back to 2009 when we first received a letter saying we owed money from 2004. We contacted them and told them everything had been filled in correctly and we were disputing this.

We then heard nothing back from them until the following year December 2010. Saying again we owed the money, so we filled in all the relevant dispute forms requested all the data they had on file etc, etc.

We then heard absolutely nothing until this morning when I receive 2 letters from Rossendales DCA. One for me and one for my partner both individual letters stating we owed the same amount each! Double the amount?

So before I pick the phone up can anyone give me any pointers on how to tackle this? Also, what powers do a DCA have can they just turn up at my address and start taking stuff???

Thanks,
Sarah x

PS - they stopped paying tax credits to us in 2010.

blondie-42

Hi,

Yes I did check and they had received it it was sent recorded delivery to them. We made a couple of phone calls to them over that period and the response was "its being looked at".

Are these so-called "debts" too old to even chase up? I thought that after 6 years they were statute barred?

Sarah
x

blondie-42

Hi,

Subject access request? Sorry but what is that and how do I go about doing that.

Also, should this be done through the DCA?

Thanks, Sarah x

Icequeen99

blondie-42 wrote: »

Hi,

Yes I did check and they had received it it was sent recorded delivery to them. We made a couple of phone calls to them over that period and the response was "its being looked at".

Are these so-called "debts" too old to even chase up? I thought that after 6 years they were statute barred?

Sarah
x

You will need to agree a time to pay with the debt collection agencies. Debt recovery is no longer suspended during a dispute.

You are most likely out of time to dispute now unless you can show that you sent in two disputes that were ignored.

You will need some legal advice on statute barring. In theory it applies to tax credits, but it has very tight criteria for it to apply.
And it only stops them taking you to county court - it won't stop them changing your tax code, recovering it from future tax credits and (when the powers start) taking it direct from bank accounts.

IQ

pmlindyloo

Debt collection agencies have very little power but can be quite persistent.

Read this to know your rights:

http://www.stepchange.org/Debtinformationandadvice/Whatyourcreditorscando/Debtcollectionagencies.aspx

Have you evidence that you contacted tax credits and disputed the overpayment? Did you keep copies of the letters that you sent?

A subject access request seems a good idea since you say that they did not respond to your dispute. This way, at least, you will have evidence of what they did/did not do.

I will try and find some info about how to do this.

pmlindyloo

Here you are - you can do it online:

https://online.hmrc.gov.uk/shortforms/form/DPU_SAR

blondie-42

Thanks for the advice! I will fill it in online.

As regards to the DCA do I ring them and say I disagree and this isn't owed and see what they say?

Thanks
Sarah x

Icequeen99

blondie-42 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice! I will fill it in online.

As regards to the DCA do I ring them and say I disagree and this isn't owed and see what they say?

Thanks
Sarah x

You can, but I doubt it will make much difference given that even HMRC won't stop recovery during a dispute.

I have managed to negotiate for people with DCA's for a couple of weeks suspension, but not indefinite whilst a dispute is decided.

IQ