CTC overpayment

Sarahbear

I got a letter today from Child Tax Credits saying I owe over £500 from 2007, have they not left it too late to get this back? If so how do I tell them

HappyMJ

Sarahbear wrote: »

I got a letter today from Child Tax Credits saying I owe over £500 from 2007, have they not left it too late to get this back? If so how do I tell them

They've left it too late to take you to court but you still owe the money. They can take it from other HMRC benefits you might claim now or in the future and that's probably at a time when you most need the money.

You should write to them either asking to pay in instalments or if you can't clear this debt in a reasonable time period asking them to consider remitting the debt.

They would expect payments of no less than £10 per month and the payment plan agreed to must not exceed 10 years. If you can't afford that they will consider writing some or all of the debt off.

fatbelly

With tax credits the 'cause of action' is when they decide to recover an overpayment. So court action is still an option if they've just made that decision, but not one they are likely to take, particularly as since April this year they can pass their debt to the DWP to collect by a Direct Earnings Attachment.

Until they know more about your situation, all options are on the table. There's a full guide on the process here

http://www.revenuebenefits.org.uk/tax-credits/guidance/how-to-deal-with-hmrc/dealing-with-debt/

The first thing to do is probably challenge it, and do a subject access request to get a record of your paperwork and phone calls.

National_Debtline

Hi Sarahbear, welcome to MSE.


There was a report in the House of Commons Public Account Committee that states that the HMRC has decided to no longer pursue the collection of tax credit overpayments if the overpayment was made between 2003/4 and 2008/9 and the HMRC have received neither a payment in the past 12 months, or where the individuals cannot be traced in the past 12months. It would seem this would apply to your circumstances. It is our understanding that the debts will not be written off, just not pursued.


You could write to HMRC and quote this to them and ask them to stop pursuing you on this basis. Hope this helps.


Laura
@natdebtline

sourcrates

National_Debtline wrote: »

Hi Sarahbear, welcome to MSE.


There was a report in the House of Commons Public Account Committee that states that the HMRC has decided to no longer pursue the collection of tax credit overpayments if the overpayment was made between 2003/4 and 2008/9 and the HMRC have received neither a payment in the past 12 months, or where the individuals cannot be traced in the past 12months. It would seem this would apply to your circumstances. It is our understanding that the debts will not be written off, just not pursued.


You could write to HMRC and quote this to them and ask them to stop pursuing you on this basis. Hope this helps.


Laura
@natdebtline

Any idea why just those particular years Laura ?