Child tax credit

Megeo

My friend received a letter asking for their earnings from 2009 2010 in case they are due money back - with a further letter coming in May 

both of his children would have been over 18 in 2009. Last received child tax credit in 2007 and requested it stop before - can’t recall if this was formerly requested or verbally. The credit did stop in 2007. 

This letter says if they have the correct details - wage etc do nothing and await a letter in April. It’s written as though they might owe him money - but they don’t. 

Contact them with details if the letter is wrong but my friend is now retired and can’t recall what the heck they earned. They no longer have that info nor the same bank account. Nor live at the same address or have the same phone number 

Is this a real letter going back over 14 years? 

What he earned in 2009/10 will have been higher than when he did received the tax credit in 2007. 

Can anyone advise please ?

peteuk

If unsure of any letter/text (not just DWP/HMRC) then the simplest thing to do is google whoever it is and then check their telephone number.  

A scam letter wont give you the really help line.   That gives you an idea only if the letter is real. 

Depending on when in 2007 their claim stopped depends on the year ending that they would have had to complete a TC end of year assessment.   TC is calculated at the start of the tax year and then divided into 13 payments.   If you received 5 payments and stop, yours still assessed at the end of the year and if not eligible for TC then those 5 payments are seen as an overpayment. 

So I would understand if the TC stopped in after April 2007, they would look at the award for April 2007 - March 2008. Im not sure why they are asking for 2009-10. 

If they owe money then dont just stick your head in the sand.  Best thing to do is Google HMRC/DWP and call them, they should be able to pinpoint the issue and tell you more about it.  If there is an overpayment then yes it can take 14 yrs to come back up and yes they do owe it.  If it was a joint claim then there is the potential that the overpayment has been split in two (and apportioned to each claimant - regardless of wh received the payment) 

NB - if migrating to UC then you get an in year recalculation - if you get a migration letter but don't claim UC, your TC stops at the end of the migration period but you get an end of the year recalculation. 

Megeo

Thank you. We were more suspicious that this is child credit wanting him to pay something back 
even if they owed him some money it no longer matters. He does not want it. 

He has bad anxiety and this has been an unexpected letter - making him very anxious.