Old tax credit debt

Tripledrop

Hi all,

My wife has recently received a debt demand from "Advantis" on behalf of HMRC for tax credit overpayments.

My wife spoke to the debt company, and they advised this is from 2009.

I don't believe we've received any correspondence regarding this before.

Any advice on how we deal with this? Are Advantis legit? Is there a way to find out more, and if they haven't chased before, is it too old to enforce? Or anything else that could help?

TIA

Darksparkle

The tax credit helpline can give any information on how the overpayment occurred and when she was originally notified.

They couldn't take court action on the debt as out with 6 years but they have other recovery methods.

Tripledrop

Thanks, will give then a call on weds

jimphillips_6

This seems an appropriate place to start, didn't want a new thread in case this has been covered already.
My wife and i have an old tax credit debt that truly is as old as the hills. my last payment was in 2013 at 150.00, the monthly repayment we had agreed. the original debt may have been 3 to 6 thousand pounds. from memory we only had 1 or 2 payments left (bear with me i will try and summarise). She recently received a letter stating 258 pounds was still owing from HMRC. I rang them, gave them MY NI number and discovered that she owes 258 and i also owe 258 as this debt is shared. the girl on the phone then went on to say that it should have been 3000 but a large portion had been written off (or deemed unrecoverable, i forget the term she used). then, trying to set up a payment plan, she comes back and says that the full 3000 is recoverable and that it is my liability and they intend to recover it (so that's 3000 between me and my wife). i asked for the evidence and the original payment plan i set up and she said she didn't have it, all she had was what was on the system and she couldn't provide any more than that? I finished by telling her to write to me! She had also said that the original letter for my wife's 258.00 was now with universal credit for collection. I contacted them, and they scared me with mention of an attachment to earnings or something. so i figured, if i paid that in full and they sent me a "fully paid" letter that would stifle any further claims they may try to raise? so..... to sumarrise..

debt letter-Mrs owes 258.00
Phone call - now i also owe 258.00
oh and there's another 2500 on the system
you owe it but we cannot provide evidence 

Now, it MAY have been the case (so long ago i'm not sure) that the original debt was 6000, we focused on my Wife's 3000 portion of the debt at 150.00 per month and left a little owing. and if i owe it, i will pay it, but it feels like it is more than it should be. 
This is seriously old money and all because the tax credit system required you to calculate earnings with a crystal ball as you all know. where do i stand? do i blindly pay because HMRC don't make mistakes or is there still the requirement for proof that i owe?
Thank you for taking the time to read, the answer is probably a simple one but this topic floods most forums and i cant find the answer. 

calcotti

jimphillips_6 said:

Now, it MAY have been the case (so long ago i'm not sure) that the original debt was 6000, we focused on my Wife's 3000 portion of the debt at 150.00 per month and left a little owing. and if i owe it, i will pay it, but it feels like it is more than it should be. 
This is seriously old money and all because the tax credit system required you to calculate earnings with a crystal ball as you all know. where do i stand? do i blindly pay because HMRC don't make mistakes or is there still the requirement for proof that i owe?
Thank you for taking the time to read, the answer is probably a simple one but this topic floods most forums and i cant find the answer. 

It would be usual for a Tax Credit debt to be apportioned equally between a couple so if your wife originally owed £3,000 it is likely that you also owed £3,000.

There is a major push to recover historic Tax Credit debt but HMRC frequently seem unable (or unwilling) to provide evidence to support their statement of the debt. Even if they do because of the time that has pasted few claimants will have evidence to allow them to challenge the accuracy of what is stated.

If you wife's debt has been passed to DWP they do have more powers to recover debt including an attachment of earnings (which HMRC cannot do).

More information here https://www.litrg.org.uk/latest-news/news/191023-do-you-have-old-tax-credit-debt