Tax free childcare reference mistake (apologies if there is already a thread)

me_bex

Apologies if there is already a thread, I have looked but there are so many treads but no title matched.  

Please go easy on me, I am a FTM and at present doing all the parenting on my own as my husband is working away. 

So I made a first bank payment to the TFC today.  I made the biggest error (for me!) my son started screaming so I went a bit scatty and instead of re-reading the how to make a payment I decided to go rogue and fluffed up the whole payment a) I put my sons name as the account name b) I left it as a personal bank account instead of business and c)I put tax free child care as the reference instead of the personal reference number that identities my account 😩 and pressed pay.  

I did manage to put the correct sort code and account number though and the bank recognised the account to be Ns&i.  So I know the money has gone to the tax free account they just won’t have a clue who to credit the money too! 

Then as the day has gone on and nothing reached my child care account I started looking and re-read the instructions and the penny dropped that I had a complete brain melt when making the payment!  I realised all this after the closing time of the helpline as well.  

I have read that they pay the money back into people’s account.  Is this true?? Or have I ballsed up badly?? 

Jyana

I admit that I have very little personal knowledge of the scheme, but it looks like the advice I can see is to always contact them directly as soon as possible if there is any kind of problem.

Be aware that it stresses the following:

Before you call

This helpline may ask you some security questions. Make sure your personal details and address are up to date in your personal tax account or you could fail telephone security. If you do not have a personal tax account, you can create one before you check your details.

Hopefully they manage to sort it out for you fairly easily. Here's the link

me_bex

For anyone else who does this, when I called this morning they said the reference number is most important and if this is wrong it should bounce back to the account you paid from.  But always call them to discuss.