Explanation of Overpayment - Child Tax Credits

Ojito

Hello, I wonder if you could advise please?

Due to the breakdown of my marriage and subsequent divorce, for a period of around 18 months I claimed benefits.

I had never claimed benefits in my life so had no idea what I was entitled to. I went to my local council office for help and advice. They gave me some forms to fill out, and they sent them off for me along with all the documentation I needed.

I ended up receiving Working Tax Credits and also Housing Benefit. This turned out to be incorrect, and I was eventually told that I shouldn't have been receiving both at the same time, and I was therefore asked to pay back £3,500. They started taking a small amount from my payments to pay it back, and also greatly reduced my payments.

Following this the amounts seemed to change weekly/monthly, every time my Working Tax Credits went down I would let the Housing Benefit people know and they would adjust it.

Eventually our marital home was sold, and I had a lump sum. I declared this and my Housing Benefit stopped altogether and I had to pay back the remainder of my overpayment in one lump sum, which I did.

At some point my Working Tax Credits were replaced with Child Tax Credits, no idea why. Every time I've had a payrise (I have always worked full-time), I declared it and it was adjusted.

In June I moved in with my new partner and declared this too as I knew his salary would make me ineligible for any benefits. I moved in on 8th June and my last payment of £99 was made on 11th June.

I have just received a letter saying that I am not getting any Child Tax Benefit this year due to not submitting my forms (I didn't as I had declared that I no longer needed them), so that's fine, BUT they are saying that I have had an overpayment of just over £1000 and need to pay this back!

There is no breakdown or explanation of how and when this overpayment happened. I have declared everything along the way, I just don't understand how they can suddenly demand this?

I no longer have any savings, they have been depleted by a few recent events. I can't pay it back in one hit. I will pay it if I have genuinely been overpaid, but I want to know exactly how this has happened.

Please could you advise if there is any way I can see clearly how and when this overpayment was made? I can accept that I was made one payment after I moved in with my partner, but that was £99, not £1000.

I am very stressed out about this, and would appreciate any advice please. They can't take payments from me as I don't get anything from them, if I do have to pay it do you think they would let me pay in instalments?

Thank you if you have got to the end of this very long post!

Caz3121

Ojito wrote: »

I have just received a letter saying that I am not getting any Child Tax Benefit this year due to not submitting my forms (I didn't as I had declared that I no longer needed them), so that's fine, BUT they are saying that I have had an overpayment of just over £1000 and need to pay this back!

Did you contact them when you received the renewal or just ignore it?

"If you do not contact HMRC at all after receiving the statement, your tax credits payments will stop and you will have to pay back the tax credits you’ve received since 6 April 2019"
https://www.gov.uk/renewing-your-tax-credits-claim

Ojito

Thank you for this, so that is where I went wrong. I obviously didn't read the letter fully/properly and that was my error. I genuinely thought that as I did not wish to claim any benefits, that I did not need to complete anything...I see that was stupid of me now.

Do you happen to know if it's too late to put this right? It looks like I'm going to have to pay it all back even though I was entitled to it at the time if not. That will teach me

Ojito

Hello, just a quick update for anyone else with the same issue, I've just spoken to the helpline.

They said that it's not too late to renew my claim, and he did it over the phone with me, I just needed my NI number and P60. He said that I will receive a new letter with the new calculation on it.

Hopefully this will bring the amount of any overpayment right down, or eliminate it altogether. If there is anything to pay, he said I can request to set up a payment plan, so no need to pay it all back in one go!

Very relieved now, thank you so much for your help. :T