Tax Credits Martin on This Morning

petunia100

Lanzarote1938 wrote: »

Don't understand why you didn't put the extra money in a savings account ready to pay back. You knew you weren't entitled to it.

Because I didn't have enough money to live on. In my world I have more money going out than coming in and thats living very basically.
i.e no cigs, drink, car. going out or holidays. I only receive ESA £20 per week of which has to go towards my rent.

Icequeen99

Can i just point out my post above again?

Martin is only telling part of the story. Even if you told them of a change of circumstances and even if they failed to act, that alone won't get the overpayment written off in the majority of cases.

To get it written off you need to show that you informed them of the change of circumstances and that you then alerted them to any mistake on the next award notice within 30 days. It is a more complicated situation if you have no award notice - it tells you now to contact them if you don't get one, but you could possibly argue against that but HMRC have taken the approach that you should follow up.

IQ

petunia100

Icequeen99 wrote: »

Can i just point out my post above again?

Martin is only telling part of the story. Even if you told them of a change of circumstances and even if they failed to act, that alone won't get the overpayment written off in the majority of cases.

To get it written off you need to show that you informed them of the change of circumstances and that you then alerted them to any mistake on the next award notice within 30 days. It is a more complicated situation if you have no award notice - it tells you now to contact them if you don't get one, but you could possibly argue against that but HMRC have taken the approach that you should follow up.

IQ

I informed them 4 weeks after it should have stopped. I supplied them with my phone bill showing I was on the phone to them for 20 mins in which an agent assured me my records would be updated. They carried on paying me for another 6 months despite me sending 3 more letters which I even supplied the proof of posting for each and trying to phone them without being able to get through. Then in response to my last letter they said they could find no record of an outstanding balance so I did no more. Several months later I started being chased by debt collectors for it. I didn't get another award notice because I was no longer entitled to any more tax credits as my daughter had started uni. Why they can't do their job properly I don't know.

Icequeen99

petunia100 wrote: »

I informed them 4 weeks after it should have stopped. I supplied them with my phone bill showing I was on the phone to them for 20 mins in which an agent assured me my records would be updated. They carried on paying me for another 6 months despite me sending 3 more letters which I even supplied the proof of posting for each and trying to phone them without being able to get through. Then in response to my last letter they said they could find no record of an outstanding balance so I did no more. Several months later I started being chased by debt collectors for it. I didn't get another award notice because I was no longer entitled to any more tax credits as my daughter had started uni. Why they can't do their job properly I don't know.

So when was your last award notice in all of this?

Also, if you knew that you were no longer entitled over those 6 months, did you not put the money aside?

IQ

petunia100

Icequeen99 wrote: »

So when was your last award notice in all of this?

Also, if you knew that you were no longer entitled over those 6 months, did you not put the money aside?

IQ

About May before my daughter started uni.
I have explained in detail in my previous posts why I didn't set the money aside.

Darksparkle

So what would you have done if they had stopped payments when you initially reported the change?