Child tax credits

Surrey_maiden

CAN ANYONE HELP?.........PLEASE

In 2010 I stopped claiming CTC as I was told by HMRC that as my son was 19 and no longer going to college I was no longer eligible to claim.
I have just received a letter ( 7 years later) stating that I was overpaid and owe £1042. So I made the customary phone call to dispute their claim.
Their response is baffling and totally unreasonable. Apparently The money I owe I was legally entitled to claim for from April 2010 to July 2010 as my son was attending college but because I didn't renew my claim for CTC as I was no longer entitled to it as he was not returning to college that year I have to pay back what they paid me!
I was also informed they sent me a letter which I do not recall ever receiving ( I did receive a renewal package) and over the past 7 years there has been no other contact from them or anyone else regarding this alleged overpayment despite them also claiming that my debt was returned to them from their debt collecting agency.
I informed the girl on the phone that I would raise a dispute to be told that I wouldn't get very far with it because they wrote to me. Is this the case?

Darksparkle

Disputes need to be made within 3 months of the decision being made so this would have been in 2010 so it would be out of time.

nannytone_2

because you didn't renew ( even though it was because you no longer had entitlement) then you didn't finalise the previous years claim. that is wh they want the payments for that year back.

THEY have to tell you that you are no longer entitled rather than you just deciding for yourself

Surrey_maiden

Does this also apply if I'm not aware of being overpaid? Also the reason they give for the overpayment is not justified I was not paid more than I was entitled to.

Darksparkle

nannytone wrote: »

because you didn't renew ( even though it was because you no longer had entitlement) then you didn't finalise the previous years claim. that is wh they want the payments for that year back.

THEY have to tell you that you are no longer entitled rather than you just deciding for yourself

It’s not about finalising last year but about the provisional payments that OP would have been from april until the claim ended. The first page of the renewal form states if not completed these payments need to be paid back.

Darksparkle

Surrey_maiden wrote: »

Does this also apply if I'm not aware of being overpaid? Also the reason they give for the overpayment is not justified I was not paid more than I was entitled to.

You said in your OP that they wrote to you (although you don’t recall receiving it). Unless Royal Mail return the post to HMRC it’s treated as received by you.

They don’t know that you were entitled to it because you didn’t complete the annual review form.

Surrey_maiden

nannytone I didn't decide for myself I had a telephone conversation with HMRC and was told I couldn't apply so I didn't. This overpayment only applies to CTC and not Working Tax Credits which I was also claiming at the time. (I won't remind them of that though) but they are not asking for that back. It all seems so unfair and why wait 7 years they've known where I am all along. Just seems like a way for them to exhort money

Surrey_maiden

Darksparkle wrote: »

You said in your OP that they wrote to you (although you don’t recall receiving it). Unless Royal Mail return the post to HMRC it’s treated as received by you.

They don’t know that you were entitled to it because you didn’t complete the annual review form.

They also claim that their Debt Collection Agency returned the debt to them. This implies that their DCA attempted to collect payment from me and failed but again I received no correspondence or any other kind of contact from them either

Darksparkle

Surrey_maiden wrote: »

They also claim that their Debt Collection Agency returned the debt to them. This implies that their DCA attempted to collect payment from me and failed but again I received no correspondence or any other kind of contact from them either

I don’t think DCA contacted everyone that was passed to them and using DCA didn’t work how they’d hoped. From 2018 tax credit debts can be passed to DWP for direct earnings attachment and this is why it’s no longer with DCA.

Regardless, they don’t need to show they made multiple attempts.