Help please re tax credit amounts

bestpud

Hiya

Please can somebody have a look at these figures and give their opinion as I can't work out what is going on. I'm waiting for a phonecall from someone at tax credits because the lady on the helpline could not understand it either!
I'm worried they will just baffle me with a load of figures - WFTC had it's downfalls but at least we could see what was happening!

We are a couple, husband works 39 hours, I don't work and we have 3 children. No disabilities or other relevant info.

01-02 £9402 earnt

03 -04 initial award ctc £4882.44 and wtc £2042.24

but I rang and told them earnings would be £12729 and they sent revised award of same ctc and wtc £1736.27

however, actual earnings were £13442 and therefore we owe £167 wtc - seems fine so far....


Then 04-05 award based on £13448 - ctc £5431.20 and wtc £659.50

actual earnings £14195 so still based on original because of disregard

This is where I am getting confused...

we were overpaid wtc as we actually received £715.73 but we only received £5005.91 ctc and the award says we have received the full amount. I've been through my statements and we haven't!

They stopped paying wtc in Feb to April. They also cut the ctc because they said we owed too much wtc. At xmas they reduced ctc by roughly £30 per week and said that would make us clear by April. Then they cut ctc by a further £50 approx in March and said that would definitely clear the overpayment and they were entitled to take so much because it was from a previous tax year.

We've now received 05 - 06 award and it still says we owe £114.16 from previous years - 2003-04 ???

Is this a simple case of them thinking they've paid more than they have? If so, has anyone else had this problem?

Thanks for taking the time to look

telly-addict

From all the press recently, it would be no surprise if there has been a mistake with tax credits, either calculation or payment.

I would ask them to send you a print out of the individual payments they believe they have paid you, WTC and CTC separately, so you can cross check them against your bank statements. This is the first step I would take, just so you can sort that bit out. This would be best from when the payments first started, or from when there have been amendments.

Now you have a series of final figures for each year, you are able to calculate what you should have received for both tax credits. Have they sent you 'final' calculations that you can check?

I don't know how they allocate the recovery of 'overpayments', presumably the earliest year first... It gets messy when they are adjusting payments received in 04/05 that relate to overpayments from a different year. I would get the basics (payments and what you are due) checked first.

Hope I have made myself clear! Let me know if not.

irs101

I can't get it to add up. Obviously a little bit of the difference is down to repaying the overpayment, but no way you should still owe them money. In addition to T-A's suggestions, you can also ask them to lay out how they have calculated your latest overpayment.

Good luck

irs

bestpud

I'm glad its not just me that can't make sense of it!

I will contact them tomorrow and get ask for a breakdown of payments and see what that shows. When I asked how the overpayment had come about, the woman on the helpline, and someone else she asked, could not understand the figures. Seems likely that someone has c****d up there end!

Thanks

Helen

iceburn

Other tip for the future, either put it in a POCA or open other seperate bank account. So than the money will be seperate and make it easy to see what is going on for checking.