Tax credits overpayment

robbiedonkey

Good morning all, Firstly let me say sorry if this has been answered a million times before but i did look on the CAB section and all the replies were from 2012.

I was contacted by HMRC in march to check on my tax credits for 15/16. I have 4 children and they wanted to check details for one of them I,E they wanted letters from school that he attended and or a letter from college saying he was enrolled there.. In April they contacted me again to say that they had overpaid me by just over £2500 for the year. I naturally said that the information I gave them was correct and I notified them of the changes at my last renewal, I also asked for paper copies of the correspondence between us and the recordings of the phone calls I had made to them in the last 18 months. The woman on the phone said there was no mention of my changes (removing the 2 eldest children) in the notes at renewal and that she would get the other stuff sent to me. A few weeks later the recordings of the phone calls arrived and in the recordings is the one where I am doing my renewal and you can clearly hear me telling the advisor that 2 of my children should come off the claim as they are not entitled to it any more.

as the 2 oldest children were to come of the claim we were told that the payment would HALF in august and that is what happened, so as far as we were concerned the information we gave was correct and the payments altered as per what HMRC said. Now I have had my renewal for 16/17 and I'm not entitled to any tax credits and I owe them just over £2500. My question is as I have done everything expected of me and informed them of all changes am I still expected to pay back the overpayment as I can prove the information given to me is what happened with my payments and I have proof that I gave them the information and they did not action it?

Thanks in advance for your help and as you may expect I am going through the appeal process now.

NYM

Did you receive anything in writing from them that confirmed the changes?
If you're able to prove that you notified them and they failed to act on those changes I can't see that you'd have to repay them.

I confess I know nothing about TC but someone will be along shortly to advise you properly.

pmlindyloo

In the meantime read this thread and then click on the link for the guide:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/tax-credit-child-working-overpayment

JimmyTheWig

First thing I would check is what you should have received if all of the information they had was correct.

Icequeen99

pmlindyloo wrote: »

In the meantime read this thread and then click on the link for the guide:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/tax-credit-child-working-overpayment

This guide is a bit misleading http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/tax-credit-child-working-overpayment?_ga=1.208658450.162297929.1463054684#over

It suggests that if you tell HMRC of a change in circumstances and they don't act on it then you can get the overpayment written off.

However, it fails to make clear that responsibility passes back to the claimant to check the next award notice and notify HMRC of any mistakes.

In the OP's case - she failed to meet her responsibilities therefore the overpayment will not be written off (except for potentially a very small amount between the + 30 day point and the award notice if there is any).

It is also misleading because it says the tax office have been told they legally can't recovery any overpayments if the person didn't make any mistakes.

Again this is wrong - firstly the legislation allows HMRC to recovery any overpayment no matter how it is caused.

Their discretion on this is set out in COP 26 guidance, but it is only guidance. And in a situation where you haven't made a mistake but neither have HMRC then the overpayment stands.

I think MSE could actually do better with this guide to ensure people are not given false hope.

IQ