8 Year Old Tax Credit Overpayment Debt

Butterfingers77

Hi All,

I'm hoping someone has some advice on tax credits over payments. I have just had a letter from HMRC debt management asking for a payment of over 2000 pounds from a tax credit over payment from 2009! When I contacted the helpline, they said I did not renew my award for that period. I no longer have my documents from that far back to check anything. I know that from the 12 years I claimed tax credits that I never missed renewing them because of the fear of not having any money.
Is it right for them to now after all these years ask me for the money that I never knew had even been overpaid to me?

Advice would be much appreciated on this please, as it is a lot of money to find

Darksparkle

Yes they can't continue to pursue the debt, they just can't take court action.

You can make a subject access request to see what paperwork has been sent previously, its likely you were notified at least once before, its highly unlikely this is the first letter sent although perhaps you did not receive the previous.

Butterfingers77

It is the only letter I've had since I've stopped having tax credits back in 2013. I just find it so strange to receive this out of the blue now.

Thanks for the advice and I will look in to it;)

kida

Hi Butterfingers - we just have had the same for an overpayment from 2007-8 over 9 years ago. Completely out of the blue...

We completed TAXCC.org advices and raised a TC846 and requested and received all of the records they have which are COMPLETE jargon and unintelligible. In response to the TC846 dispute they said they wrote to me in 2007 (I have no record of this and there is no record in their records) and since the 3months window for dispute ended in early 2008 I can no longer dispute. This is absolute madness! How can they wait NINE years to suddenly send you a huge overpayment demand - this is Chaos..

TAXCC's great website is no longer updated and they are not contactable - I don't want to go down the statute of limitations path as this would prejudice me as accepting the overpayment is right and fair. I am trying to find someone else experienced in helping us Davids fight the Goliath of HMRC...

Icequeen99

kida wrote: »

Hi Butterfingers - we just have had the same for an overpayment from 2007-8 over 9 years ago. Completely out of the blue...

We completed TAXCC.org advices and raised a TC846 and requested and received all of the records they have which are COMPLETE jargon and unintelligible. In response to the TC846 dispute they said they wrote to me in 2007 (I have no record of this and there is no record in their records) and since the 3months window for dispute ended in early 2008 I can no longer dispute. This is absolute madness! How can they wait NINE years to suddenly send you a huge overpayment demand - this is Chaos..

TAXCC's great website is no longer updated and they are not contactable - I don't want to go down the statute of limitations path as this would prejudice me as accepting the overpayment is right and fair. I am trying to find someone else experienced in helping us Davids fight the Goliath of HMRC...

There really isn't anyone who can help. They will have notified you - it would have been on your last award notice from tax credits and they send a notice to pay 30 days after that. If you can prove they didn't send the award notice then you may be able to do something about it as they have to do that to commence recovery under the Tax Credits Act but i've never seen a case where anyone has been able to show this.

All the statute of limitations will do is stop them recovery via county court action. They can still take other action and from next year DWP will be recovering HMRC debts and they can use direct earnings attachments so will take it from your pay before you receive it if you work.

Since the 3 month time limit was introduced in April 2013 it has effectively stopped people in your position from taking any action.

The time to take action was when you received the final award notice.

IQ

kida

What about this approach?

http://www.taxcc.org/TCC_News/23/11/2013/is-your-case-over-6-years-old/

kida

Everyone who has suddenly received overpayment demands that stretch back from years ago - don't loose heart. I followed the advices from this website:

http://www.taxcc.org

After 3 letters, reams of records to plough through and 2 months of waiting I got confirmation that I have no overpayments outstanding.

Tax Credits had not kept any copies of recordings of calls made to them from the period, nor had they kept copies of applications, forms etc. I honestly had no awareness of overpayments outstanding and am glad I challenged the shocking demand letter I received.

Now for the point of this post - I am VERY concerned that there are certain people posting in this forum that have a blind attitude that "if TC sent you a demand you'll just have to pay". These people are misleading and cruel especially when this forum may be were desperate people come to seek help.

All cases are unique, and the tax credits office can and do get things wrong that is why there is an official process you can go through to ensure that everything is correct and an independent process that can look at your case to decide if you have a valid overpayment demand.

Good luck and if you think a demand is wrong, unwarranted or unfair then challenge it!

veejay43

I must have missed this thread as i have just posted a new on,on a similiar note
My son has had almost £50 a month taken from his Universal credit without pr informing him,he is now in hardship, his MP has become involved but got nowhere
My son has received a copy of the reply to MP which refers to my son as mrs[name] and her[], also now dated from an earlier year
Looked at that website it hasnt been updated since 2014 i think,and because the money is deducted from his UC my son cant even refuse to pay,its just disgusting the way they treat people

WENDYFLIP

How many peoole have had the debt wriiten off? Is this worth doing as im being told after 10 years i owe money .

poppy12345

WENDYFLIP said:

How many peoole have had the debt wriiten off? Is this worth doing as im being told after 10 years i owe money .

You've posted on a thread that's almost 2 years old. Best to start your own thread with your question because people read the first post and answer that, this then causes confusion.