HMR & C overpayment from 2007/08

chebartek

Hello.
My father was working in UK in 2007/2008. As he was earning the minimum wage he's got working tax credit. In 2008 he got back to the country. Now, after 7 years he received a letter from HMRC that they have overpaid and now they want money back. They give the possible solutions of payment, but no explanation why they have overpaid, and also no payment due date.
Yesterday (05.07.15) my father received another letter from "pastdue credit solutions" that he need to pay the money due to 3.07.15.
I've read about writing a dispute or an appeal, but i don't know which one (or both) would be the best? I heard about that he has 3 months from the 1st letter to write it. I still have more than a month.
My father is unemployed and he doesn't have money to pay this, and the worst is that he does not know why they want money, because every information he gave them was up-to-date.

I ask for any help as the person who do not know much about UK taxes and so on.

Thanks.

chebartek

thanks. I know about the helpline, but i'm in Poland and my father does not speak English well. So is there any possibility that I would talk with the guys there?
The second thing is that i heard they are very impolite and not very helpfull. They also do not want to give any information. so I'm afraid that I will pay a lot of money and get no information.

bloolagoon

chebartek wrote: »

thanks. I know about the helpline, but i'm in Poland and my father does not speak English well. So is there any possibility that I would talk with the guys there?
The second thing is that i heard they are very impolite and not very helpfull. They also do not want to give any information. so I'm afraid that I will pay a lot of money and get no information.

How did he work without speaking english well?

chebartek

comunicatively. but this is not the case. so help, or please don't write.

Icequeen99

chebartek wrote: »

Hello.
My father was working in UK in 2007/2008. As he was earning the minimum wage he's got working tax credit. In 2008 he got back to the country. Now, after 7 years he received a letter from HMRC that they have overpaid and now they want money back. They give the possible solutions of payment, but no explanation why they have overpaid, and also no payment due date.
Yesterday (05.07.15) my father received another letter from "pastdue credit solutions" that he need to pay the money due to 3.07.15.
I've read about writing a dispute or an appeal, but i don't know which one (or both) would be the best? I heard about that he has 3 months from the 1st letter to write it. I still have more than a month.
My father is unemployed and he doesn't have money to pay this, and the worst is that he does not know why they want money, because every information he gave them was up-to-date.

I ask for any help as the person who do not know much about UK taxes and so on.

Thanks.

You have misunderstood the timescales unfortunately. The 3 months dispute and 1 month appeal timelimits run from the date of the decision not the date of the debt letter.

So if the overpayment relates to 2007/08 you are out of time for both appeals and disputes. Your father will have received a final award notice for 07/08 sometime in the Summer of 2008 and that would have shown the overpayment.

You really need to arrange a small repayment whilst you try and get answers.

IQ

chebartek

Icequeen99 wrote: »

You have misunderstood the timescales unfortunately. The 3 months dispute and 1 month appeal timelimits run from the date of the decision not the date of the debt letter.

So if the overpayment relates to 2007/08 you are out of time for both appeals and disputes. Your father will have received a final award notice for 07/08 sometime in the Summer of 2008 and that would have shown the overpayment.

You really need to arrange a small repayment whilst you try and get answers.

IQ

But in this paper the date of issue is 11 May 2015. My father did not receive anything before. This is the first thing they have sent. I've read in the Internet about the same cases in few days, e.x. girl from Australia that has been in UK 12 years ago and got the same letter.
In the paper they give this number 03002003805. but i cannot find anywhere on the gov website and hmrc. I even found information that it could be scam.

Icequeen99

chebartek wrote: »

But in this paper the date of issue is 11 May 2015. My father did not receive anything before. This is the first thing they have sent. I've read in the Internet about the same cases in few days, e.x. girl from Australia that has been in UK 12 years ago and got the same letter.
In the paper they give this number 03002003805. but i cannot find anywhere on the gov website and hmrc. I even found information that it could be scam.

The letter is a debt letter so they use different numbers for those.

When your father was getting payments he will have received award notices. His final award notice will have showed the debt - that is the legal notice that tells the person of the debt and allows recovery. If that was not issued, then HMRC would not be able to recover but in 10 years of dealing with tax credit cases I have never ever seen a case where that has happened. People often forget or don't read the paperwork or often don't understand (they are hard to understand the notices especially if English isn't the first language).

It would be for you to prove that your father did not receive his final award notice for 2007/08.

IQ

NYM

Does your Father have a friend that speaks/understands English well enough to help him when he speaks to the Helpline?

You said ...My father was working in UK in 2007/2008. As he was earning the minimum wage he's got working tax credit. In 2008 he got back to the country



I don't understand that bit in bold. Did he leave the UK ?

chebartek

NYM wrote: »

Does your Father have a friend that speaks/understands English well enough to help him when he speaks to the Helpline?

You said ...My father was working in UK in 2007/2008. As he was earning the minimum wage he's got working tax credit. In 2008 he got back to the country



I don't understand that bit in bold. Did he leave the UK ?

Let me explain. As his son I can speak with them. )I think that my level of English will be enough for this ).
My father was in Uk only for about a year. We are from Poland, so he got back to Poland.

NYM

chebartek wrote: »

Let me explain. As his son I can speak with them. )I think that my level of English will be enough for this ).
My father was in Uk only for about a year. We are from Poland, so he got back to Poland.

I apologise, I thought he was still living here and you were in Poland.

Did he inform them that he was returning to Poland ?

chebartek

Icequeen99 wrote: »

The letter is a debt letter so they use different numbers for those.

When your father was getting payments he will have received award notices. His final award notice will have showed the debt - that is the legal notice that tells the person of the debt and allows recovery. If that was not issued, then HMRC would not be able to recover but in 10 years of dealing with tax credit cases I have never ever seen a case where that has happened. People often forget or don't read the paperwork or often don't understand (they are hard to understand the notices especially if English isn't the first language).

It would be for you to prove that your father did not receive his final award notice for 2007/08.

IQ

THANK YOU VERY MUCH! Icequeen99 you are really helpful!

So, from what you are saying I understand that I need to prove HMRC that my father did not receive final award notice? Can I ask them for any prove of sending it? The funniest thing is that those letters do not have any confirmation. They have put it to the mailbox and that is it. From what I know letters like these need signing and by it confirming the pickup.