Sudden decrease in tax credits?

Darksparkle

When you are sent an awards notice the responsibility is put on you to check it. I understand these things can be confusing but if you are going to claim you really need to check these and start to understand how it works.

Mistakes do happen and although we all wish they wouldn't, it's humans updating the system. So this is why the awards are sent for you to check.

They give you 30 days to do this for it to be corrected.

You need to advice them of everything that is incorrect and leave it to them to decide whether to change it. If they won't (which is likely as its so late) then appeal.

Icequeen may be able to give more advice on appealing. It is a long process though.

doomandgloom

I see where you're coming from and I feared that may be the case.

Thing is I don't know what is right and what isn't. Maybe not much of an excuse but they know more than me.

So I am going to dispute because otherwise I am still going to be "penalised". This is for the overpayment not the childcare.

However, is there any point? I remember that usually you have to dispute within so many months but didn't think it applied to me until today. Should the advisor on the phone have made me aware of that? They made it sound straight forward (although I got the impression that she wanted me off the phone because I wasn't happy with the situation. Wasn't rude, mind).

marliepanda

If you've been overpaid and the award notice has mistakes, it's your 'fault' for not correcting it. You will have to pay it back

Darksparkle

doomandgloom wrote: »

I see where you're coming from and I feared that may be the case.

Thing is I don't know what is right and what isn't. Maybe not much of an excuse but they know more than me.

So I am going to dispute because otherwise I am still going to be "penalised". This is for the overpayment not the childcare.

However, is there any point? I remember that usually you have to dispute within so many months but didn't think it applied to me until today. Should the advisor on the phone have made me aware of that? They made it sound straight forward (although I got the impression that she wanted me off the phone because I wasn't happy with the situation. Wasn't rude, mind).

I agree with some of what you say. Re: income, yes they know more about what should be declared. However this information is also available to you to look into if you wish.

Re: childcare you know this. You know what you pay so it's simply a case of checking the award.

It wouldn't be a dispute, it's an appeal because they are not using the correct information for your 2014/15 income. However you cannot appeal until you get a decision from refusing to correct your income. That's the first step.

A dispute is for when the claim is correct but you feel it is not your fault.

doomandgloom

I think i might be a bit confused here.

So am I not disputing? they told me on the phone they are sending me paperwork for me to dispute the overpayment. That was their suggestion after I told them they had the wrong info.

What should the process be?

Darksparkle

doomandgloom wrote: »

I think i might be a bit confused here.

So am I not disputing? they told me on the phone they are sending me paperwork for me to dispute the overpayment. That was their suggestion after I told them they had the wrong info.

What should the process be?

As per my posts above, you need to ask them to make all relevant corrections to your 2014/15 income and childcare.

This usually gets sent to the tax credit office.

Due to the lateness of this, this request is usually refused and you get a letter telling you this.

From there you ask for a mandatory reconsideration. This must be done within 30 days of receiving the letter. If that doesn't work then an appeal.

https://www.gov.uk/tax-credits-appeals-complaints/disagree-with-a-tax-credits-decision

A dispute is not appropriate because you have said they have the wrong income and childcare details.

doomandgloom

Hi

Thank you. As you can probably tell I don't know how I'm supposed to go about anything.

Ok so would you recommend to ring them to do this or write to them?

In the meantime ignore the dispute paperwork that comes through because it is not needed. They will be sending me an income and expenditure form to get the overpayment reclaim reduced. Do I fill this out? If I'm following your process it seems kind of pointless but if they refuse to amend I'm still hit hard with how much they want to deduct my tax credits in the meantime.

Darksparkle

doomandgloom wrote: »

Hi

Thank you. As you can probably tell I don't know how I'm supposed to go about anything.

Ok so would you recommend to ring them to do this or write to them?

In the meantime ignore the dispute paperwork that comes through because it is not needed. They will be sending me an income and expenditure form to get the overpayment reclaim reduced. Do I fill this out? If I'm following your process it seems kind of pointless but if they refuse to amend I'm still hit hard with how much they want to deduct my tax credits in the meantime.

Call them to ask for the changes to be made.

You can just accept the overpayment and deal with repayments if you want. You don't need to take my advice.

Tax credits are reduced at a set percentage, usually 25%.

doomandgloom

Ok I will call them.

I'm happy to accept your advice because I do not have a clue about how to go about any of this. I'm starting to think I have been very naive about all of this and should have discussed the overpayment sooner. If I'd have known I'd be bitten in the bum like this I definitely would have done.

I have rechecked all of my figures etc this evening. I definitely declared the right amount (the reduced amount) and they used the full income with no SMP deduction.

doomandgloom

I have been having a look on the Internet to get some more information.

I think i am very much out of time for being able to successfully dispute or appeal anything given that I have seen that appeals/ disputes should be done within 30 days and no longer than 3 months. Looks like there is a lot of burden on me to prove that it is their mistake and I believed that the payments they made were right. I can prove the mistake part very easily. However I think they will come back with what has already been said on this thread, which is I should have checked even though I believed my claim to be correct.

I am going to follow all the guidance I have received on here and I am very grateful for the replies. Can anyone give me an idea as to the success of this though so I can set my own expectations.

Thanks again