Repayment of Tax Credits

Cazz27081841

Hi, just wondering whether anyone has any experience with LCS debt recovery? My tax credits ended last year due to my increased working hours/salary and last years award notice confirmed that I'd been overpaid (which I knew about because despite me informing HMRC of my change in circumstances straight away, they continued to pay me). 

Anyway, no problem with repaying this money to them, but I have now received a letter from LCS saying all future correspondence and payments need to go through them.  The amount owing in their letter does match that on HMRC correspondence, but my concern is that I have received nothing from HMRC advising me to make payment to anyone else.  Tried phoning HMRC to check but their tax credits helpline is unavailable (or so their recorded message says). Just wondering if anyone else has repaid the overpayment via this company and basically is it legit?

Icequeen1

Cazz27081841 said:

Hi, just wondering whether anyone has any experience with LCS debt recovery? My tax credits ended last year due to my increased working hours/salary and last years award notice confirmed that I'd been overpaid (which I knew about because despite me informing HMRC of my change in circumstances straight away, they continued to pay me). 

Anyway, no problem with repaying this money to them, but I have now received a letter from LCS saying all future correspondence and payments need to go through them.  The amount owing in their letter does match that on HMRC correspondence, but my concern is that I have received nothing from HMRC advising me to make payment to anyone else.  Tried phoning HMRC to check but their tax credits helpline is unavailable (or so their recorded message says). Just wondering if anyone else has repaid the overpayment via this company and basically is it legit?

HMRC do often use debt collection agencies in the first instance. LCS is company HMRC use - you can confirm it here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/what-will-happen-if-you-do-not-pay-your-tax-bill 1st locate (trading as LCS)