Hmrc has sent me to debt recovery without notice.

Jimmy90

Hi everyone. This maybe abit long winded but I really could do with some advice.

Yesterday morning while in my mother's house I received a letter from LCS (debt recovery for hmrc) stating that hmrc had forward my record to them to recover the sum of £698 for overpaid tax credit. Me being me, I thought straight up scam, I have not had anything to do with tax credits for 4/5 years. So for piece of mind I rang hmrc tax credit line to confirm the scam.... after getting passed pillar to post I finally got through to a advisor who confirmed it was correct and i do owe the money from 2011/12 tax year. So I asked why hmrc have not contacted me about this for 4 nearly 5 years and sent me to debt recovery which will destroy my credit file which I have been building up a good score over the last 4 years and his reply was I should of had a lot of letters between then and now but I haven't one I explained and asked him what info have you got on your system to go with so I can understand were I am at with all of this and he says he has no info what so ever, nothing to say that letters had been sent my address or my partners address(it was a joint claim). Nothing to say they have tried to contact me repeatedly over 4 years and I have ignored them. NOTHING. all he can see is I owe £698. I tried to explain over the last 5 years I have been in contact with hmrc on servral occasions for incorrect tax code, self assessment and other things, not once has anybody said to me you owe us £698 and you have not paid it us back.. So after being on the phone for a long time getting extremely frustrated he asked me to ring lcs to see if they had any information. (I felt like sayin are you taking the !!!!ing !!!! you sent my record to them) but I'm a polite person lol so I agreed.

I was on hold for 1hr 55mins to lcs to be precise and i hung up.

Does anybody have any advise of where I stand?

Surely I need some proof in paper form from hmrc before I even consider anything?

What I'm completely furious about is my credit file. I have worked so hard over the last 5 years to build a good credit score and i finally buy my first home and then I receive this. I don't even want to log into my experian account and see the damage they've done. I feel like seeking legal advise.


Thanks for reading and for any advise given.

Darksparkle

Simply being recovered by DCA doesn't affect your credit score.

If a tax credit overpayment, the tax credit helpline can inform you what the overpayment is for, when it is for and send you copies of awards notices from that period.

You can also do a subject access request for details of all correspondence sent to you. This can be done by post or online.

konark

LCS can't do anything but bluster, if you refuse to play ball they;ll pass it back to HMRC.

Never ring LCS, always deal with HMRC

Mr_Costcutter

You should write to Debt Management HMRC complaints department and inform them of the nature of your complaint i.e what has happened. Request immediate postponement of the debt until the matter is dealt with to your satisfaction. Additionally, request an urgent response from the complaints dept.

Good Luck

atrixblue.-MFR-.

I agree that you should contact HMRCS and ask for them to pull back the Debt from LCS as this is the first point of knowledge.


I would then ask HMRCS for their debt recovery policy in addition Also asking for a SAR (subject Access Request).


Also look through ANY award documents given to you during your award periods if you retained any there's a section that lists Any over payments there.


You need also request a extension to enforcement action to prepare and investigate the alleged debt and wait for your requests to be completed and looked into, and any complaints you make to be investigated prior to being handed any recovery and enforcement notices.


Once your satisfied you don't or do owe the debt, you can begin negotiations process's and or Alternate Debt Resolutions (ADR).