Tax Credit Overpayment during a period of mental health

Jacksonmerc

Its quite a bit complicated, so please bear with me. In 2015, my then girlfriend and I had a baby who was born sleeping. Our daughter was 36 weeks. Only weeks later, my then girlfriend found out she had terminal cancer and died after 3 weeks. We got married just 3 days before she died. We was both aged just 36.  As you can imagine, my life just turned upside down. I couldn't even grieve properly as we had two other daughters who were aged 1 and 4 at the time. I also had the pressure of returning to work as a bus driver. At the time of receiving the demand for the tax credit overpayment in late 2017 I was raising a young family , suffering domestic abuse from my new partner whom I regrettably went on to marry (while still not in the right frame of mind), and most importantly suffering severe mental health in the form of suicide attemps, depression, and anxiety which resulted in me losing my car/bus/lorry driving licence and therefore my job.

I believe this overpayment may have been because Tax Credits believed that I was still claiming Widowed Parents Allowance long after the claim had ceased. Despite many phone calls to Widow Parents Allowance at the time, they could not provide me with any paperwork evidence to prove that my claim with them had ceased.  Eventually after many weeks, I received a letter from them stating that the claim ended on the 15th of April 2017. However, I was outside the mandatory reconsideration timeframe. My health was at its worst at this time, so to quickly deal with this issue I set up two payments of £15 and £10 just to end the hassle. I therefore requested recently that the overpayments was looked at again because under exceptional circumstances and compassionate grounds because a) My mental health meant I was not in the right frame of mind to deal with this matter at the time and b) I tried to get the paperwork to them, but I couldn’t get anything from Widowed Parents Allowance until it was too late to send the document in c) I believe that my former wife is fully or partially responsible for any monies owed.

 

This is the timeframe of events that I know of:

·         My daughter,was stillborn at 36 weeks on 6th March 2015

·         My wife died on 4th May 2015

·         Shortly after I phoned up Widowed parents’ allowance and my claim began on 4th May 2015

·         On 29th September 2016, new partner moves into my house

·         I remarried in April 2017, therefore the claim for Widowed Parents Allowance ceased

·         On 30th June 2017, New wife and I separate, and she moves out of my house

·         On 20th October 2017 I received a letter stating I owe Tax Credits £3581.61

·         On 1st November 2017 a direct debit of £25 was set up, with the first payment taken on the 1st of December 2017

·         A rather aggressive letter was sent on 1st December 2017 demanding a payment of £50

·         On 9th December 2017 a direct debit was set up for £10 to cover the amount of £2216.24 and an amount of £15 to cover the amount of £3556.61

·         On 12th December 2017 a letter confirming the amount of £10 to be collected each month

·         On 21st February 2018 a letter from Tax Credits stating I had until 19th October 2016 to dispute the recovery, even though I was not informed of the overpayment until 20th October 2017

·         A letter dated 23rd July 2018 from widowed parents allowance states that my claim for widowed parents allowance ceased on 15th April 2017 because I got remarried

·         A letter dated 30th November 2018 stated that my mandatory reconsideration is not accepted because I had until the 24th of June 2017 to dispute the overpayment, once again, I was not informed of this overpayment until the 20th of October 2017. 

As you can see from the list above, I couldn’t possibly have appealed the overpayment as I wasn’t aware of it until after the deadline for the mandatory reconsideration period had elapsed. 

Up until recently I have been physically and mentally unable to address anything, let alone a Tax Credit Overpayment. To this day and for the foreseeable future I am still under the care of my GP and still take daily medication for my mental illness and I am determined never to return to this state. I am now in a much better place than I was all those years ago. Hence the reason I am now addressing this issue and I am determined to see it resolved and would appreciate any help or guidance.

peteuk

It sounds like youve been through a very difficult situation more than once, so I hope not to be too blunt but hopefully you will understand. 

Your tax credit is calculated on a years amount and paid to you in 13 payments.  THe way the system runs is it works out at the start of the tax year how much it thinks it should pay you and then recalculates this at the end of the tax year.  

Any change in circumstances effectivly recalculates all the payments recieved within that year, thats both already paid to you and those payments yet to be made. 

Technically you should have advised them that your new partner moved in September 2016, this would have affected your claim from April 2016 until March 2017.  I am going to assume that they have caclucated a zero payment for the year and so the £3581.61 is the full years payment.  (Call DWP debt line to find out the exact overpayment period) 

Sadly the rest of your life is irrilevant, yes youve had a hard time and yes I agree its harsh but anything after the overpayment would not be affected by them.  Your right to complain may, however be different.  However sadly you delt with it.  You set up a payment plan and made payments.  I would try to appeal on the grounds youve stated above however having already stated you out of time, then I fear they will now say the same. 

 "On 9th December 2017 a direct debit was set up for £10 to cover the amount of £2216.24 and an amount of £15 to cover the amount of £3556.61"

Its not clear where the £2216.24 overpayment comes from (again please contact DWP debt line to ge the details of any overpayment) 

TC overpayments have no limit on which they can claim it back.  Glad your in a much better space, and hopefully you can get this sorted. 

Robbie64

Sorry to read about the time you have had over the past decade or so. It sounds like you have had a very trying time.

My advice would be to speak to someone face to face if possible, at somewhere like the Citizens Advice. Although posters can give you advice on the forum, given all that has happened it might be better to get some practical help to be able to deal with all that you have outlined. It would save any potential to-and-froing between yourself and HMRC.

Also, I would do this sooner rather than later. Tax credit overpayments are being gradually passed over to the DWP to administer and the DWP are even more inflexible than HMRC when it comes to overpayments. This is partly because if the overpayment is a tax credit then the DWP don't always have all the paperwork to hand. They often get details of what is owed, but not not why. The DWP then start to seek repayment and any query raised by the claimant then has to be referred back to HMRC for investigation.