Tax Credit Overpayment

JemSimo

I'm new to this so bear with me! I have been claiming tax credits jointly with my husband since about 2005 with no problems, then in September 2014 we received a letter from TCO saying they are changing the way they recover tax credit overpayments and that they had previously told us that we had been overpaid. (We had a recovery of just under £30 taken from the previous years award so I thought this was just a blanket letter sent out to everyone who had ever been overpaid). Then in Nov 2014 we received an amended award notice which stated that there had been an overpayment made on a single claim (that was made in my husbands name before we moved in together) for £1386 and that some of this would be taken from this years award and the remainder from future awards.


I called to query this and they said that it was to do with a period when I wasn't working (when my son was born!), they said they would sort it out and because my husband was still working we were still eligible and that the overpayment was incorrect. I still thought this was strange because we didn't receive much anyway so that was a big overpayment for the time stated. Anyway, the lady I spoke to then called me back a couple of weeks later to say that actually it was from an overpayment made to my husbands single claim back in May 2005! I argued that this was ridiculous to take the money from me (the joint claim now is for child tax credit and paid into my account) for a claim made by my husband 10 years ago, before we even moved in together. I was told that I could not dispute this as the 3 months to do so had passed! I went on to send in the TC846 form in December to dispute the fact that I couldn't put it right at the time because for one, I wasn't on the claim and also the first we knew of it was in November 2014!


I understand that government legislation now allows them to recover amounts from joint claims where one of the claimants has previously been overpaid, but to go back 10 years seems a bit extreme! I have today (29th May) had the reply to the TC846 (which was received by the TCO on 3rd Dec 2014!), saying that we only had until 31 August 2005 to dispute the overpayment and so they will not consider it and we should pay the money back. I would have loved to dispute it back then had I have known about it! I have tried calling but cannot get through. Can anybody give me some advice on how I should proceed? I really don't have the time and energy to spend hours on the phone to the TCO if I'm fighting a losing battle. Thanks!

Caz3121

It is difficult that it is from so long ago as I expect you won't have much of the paperwork.
If this is from a single claim, could it have been that your husband never sent in the renewal notice to finalise the award for the previous year so the whole years money needs paid back.
It is likely that there was notification 10 years ago that was not followed up and there seems to be a lot of work happening to get these aged debts paid.
Is your husband able to agree a repayment plan with them?

Bazza73

HMRC are hard to deal with - it takes so long to get responses and then they just try and fob you off again.

Have a read off http://www.taxcc.org/TCC_News/23/11/2013/is-your-case-over-6-years-old/ as it provides some template letters you can try.

Hope it helps.

Icequeen99

Bazza73 wrote: »

HMRC are hard to deal with - it takes so long to get responses and then they just try and fob you off again.

Have a read off http://www.taxcc.org/TCC_News/23/11/2013/is-your-case-over-6-years-old/ as it provides some template letters you can try.

Hope it helps.

They won't help the OP as the 6 year limit doesn't stop HMRC recovering from their own tax credit payments, it just stops them taking county court action.

OP - your husband should have disputed the overpayment at the time it occurred. Unfortunately on this occasion, HMRC are right and there isn't really much you can do unless you can show hardship with the new recovery.

IQ

konark

Yes the new legislation means the protection that people had with the statute limitation against old and forgotten debts has gone.

HMRC have a wonderfully sloped playing field where they can go back decades to find a debt but you'can only go back 3 months to query it. All this and they don't even have to bother to go to court to prove anything they say is true.



Thanks to the government, we can all have sleepless nights worrying that HMRC and others will conveniently discover we owe them thousands of pounds and we have no way of countering these allegations, and if we don't pay them they'll just help themselves..