HELP! Have letter for £1000 tax credits we dont owe.

ChristineLouise

Help please!!
My partner has gone home tonight to a letter from a debt collection agency demanding over £1000 in overpaid tax credits. He is all in a panic. He has worked and never claimed tax credits in his life. Only been on JSA for 6 months. Never had any other benefit. So no idea why HMRC think he has been overpaid by £1000. 
What scares us is 2 years ago he applied to college but got stopped because there was already a student loan out in his name (hes never been to college / uni or gone further than A Levels). It did get resolved but in that time term had started and he couldnt go to college. He is hoping to start this September.

Can we check his NI number see what has been submitted in his name can we do that?

And most importantly how do we deal with debt collectors and HMRC who say he owes over a grand..😭😱

huckster

Request all data from HMRC
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/hmrc-subject-access-request
It could be that there has been a admin mistake or worse identity has been stolen.  If student finance England (SFE) also had some record of finance in your partners name, which he has never received, then a Subject Access Request to SFE might also be advisable.

sassy_one

You say he hasn't applied for these, but you do not know for sure that he hasn't applied for it previously and been awarded.

It's very possible hes attempting to hide previously claiming and pretending to act shocked.

I'd suggest visiting CAB for advice but for the record, be warned they will look at the bank details where any monies were paid and if it turns out he did claim it, expect a fraud investigation.