tax credit overpayments new report published

CODEBREAKER

doodledoodle24 wrote:

I was talking to a lady in the inland revenue office and she said that the tax credits people are not allowed to take any more then 1/5 of you working tax/child tax credit payments off you to pay any overpayments!

they have deducted nearly 1/3 of our payment.

fortunatly this is for only 3 months and payments will be back to normal in july 06

parley

Just received a letter asking if I can pay back one week as they double paid me during that week. I didn't even notice but glad they did notice so soon, they did it during May this year. So sending them a cheque tomorrow. Rather they let me know quickly than leave it for a year.

Contains_Mild_Peril

I thought that all Govt depts were supposed to be bound by some sort of code of practice which prevented them from taking payments which would cause extreme hardship. Maybe that's just a vague ideology which doesn't actually translate into practice.
The whole system is a mess. They have recently, without warning and for the second time, stopped my child tax credits because they allege they did not receive the return form confirming my details which I sent back after having to reapply for the Dec 05 - Feb 06 period (when my TCs were stopped because they allegedly did not receive a form I sent back. I actually finished up sending the application form recorded so they couldn't deny receiving it). Though my CTC was reinstated for a while, I still did not receive a backdated payment for about 10 weeks missed. On top of that, I've been without CTC for 9 weeks this time. My family is now suffering considerable hardship because of this. On more than one occasion I've had to scrounge from my mum to pay bills.
A while ago I received a letter from the IR, which I opened eagerly, expecting it to tell me when I'd get my TC, but no: it said I'd been overpaid over £1500 for 2005-06! I phoned up querying this, and was told I would have to get a form from their overpayments dept. if I wanted to dispute it. Eventually the form arrived, I explained the situation and pointed out that, since the money had been child tax credit which is paid regardless of income, the details on any lost return forms would not affect it so I could not have been overpaid.
I got a reply saying

Having looked at the information we hold and that you have provided, we consider that you should have been aware that your payments were wrong. Our reasons for this decision are set out below.

We issued an annual declaration to you on 03 My 2005. This information was not returned and we have already finalised your 2004-2005 tax credits claim based on the information we held on our records at 30 September 2005. Due to this our decision to recover the amount paid in 2005-2006 still stands.

We appreciate that you will be disappointed by our decision that you will hve to pay back your overpayment. You have no right of appeal against our decision. However, if you have any further information that you have not previously given us and which you think is relevant, please let us know.

How can it not have been reasonable for me to assume that the payment was correct when it would appear that it was in fact correct, but based on the previous year's information? Since I still have the same number of children (1), the child tax credit award based on that information should be correct.
I also had no reason at the time to believe that they had not received the information. I had filled in the form online, believing it to be more reliable than the post!
I'm not sure what "further information", if any, might help my case.
My husband and I both returned our review forms very promptly this year, since mine was also supposed be looked at with a view to reinstating our tax credits in the meantime. Since my DH had not yet received his P60, he waited till he had it so he could fill in exact rather than estimated figures on his. I am still waiting for my CTC (apparently it's been awarded but is still "in the system", so God only knows when I'll actualy get some money). It was after we sent this year's forms back that I got the letter alleging I still owe them money!
Teething troubles are one thing, but this mess should really have been sorted out by now. Hopefully, increasing political pressure will encourage progress, but right now it's a nightmare. :mad:

pennylewren

OK, Can I join in??

I have always kept the tax credit people up to date when my husband changed jobs, had an increase in salary, we had a new baby etc.

So, now they are saying that I owe £1906.57 & we will no longer recieve the £56 a week they have been paying. Now, that is a lot of money to us (ie its my food shopping paid for).

Yikes.

donnalove

it is worth it to keep appealing get a copy of phone conversations etc, they won't listen to phone conversations(well they didn't mine)untill the complaints team have took it on.they said my husbands income was missing on the forms but it wasn't they are using excuses, you can clearly here me reading out to the lady on the phone the figures that are on the form that were correct.

this form was the first of the overpayments and on the phone she is telling me that the award i have got is incorrect(yes i told you doh))she then goes on and tells me a diff award which is higher than the 1 i had in my hand!!!!!!!!! she told me that was correct and i would recieve the forms in a few day's(this was 2 years ago)

i then rang back in the afternoon as i wasn't happy and the gentleman i spoke 2 could see what had happened but couldn't tell me why the lady told me my award was going to be higher.so he puts urgent notice on the screen and sends it through to be looked at explaining i had wrang up to say the award was incorrect and for them to look at it again.
he explained that the computer hadn't tappered down the award on the tax credits.
he told me it would take a few weeks but would get a new award through.
low and behold 3 weeks later we did get a new award THE SAME giving us the overpayments and saying it was correct...........

we are now hoping they will stop collecting these overpayments after finaly listening to the phone calls as the complaints dept have asked them to do(they didnt before even though i had stressed it to them).

Contains_Mild_Peril

I wish they would get an e-mail address instead of making me phone them all the time. It would be much easier to keep track of what was said and when, and I wouldn't have the hassle of trying to speak on the phone atm when I have a bad cold and can hardly talk.
When I phoned the other day, the woman I spoke to told me this year's review form which I'd sent in weeks ago hadn't been received (a problem which allegedly occurs almost every time I send them anything!), but when I told her that the last person I spoke to told me the form had arrived, she checked and found he was right. She still couldn't tell me when I'll get my tax credit reinstated, though.

Tracy0403

Please check out https://www.taxdiscredit.co.uk

This is a National Petition to the House of Commons for radical reform/abolition of tax credit system from the people who matter...those affected!

Please sign. The Governement has been passing off each individual pointed finger with a barrage of excuses. Not good enough.

I am a single mum of two who has endured two years of apathy from the call centres and complacencey from the Government. My case was highlighted in the press and I have now received a personal apology from both Dawn Primarolos office and the tax credit office. Still not good enough. There are millions of us suffering. We put the Government there to serve us...are they?

No they are causing economic disaster and refuse to accept responsibility.

Please log on and sign as soon as possible and believe me...we can execute a change. It's time to make them listen!

Fran

Hi tracy0403,

I have signed the petition though actually it's against my natural instinct to not sign anything that hasn't got any details about who started it.

Can you contact whoever started it to put more information on the site? It might put other people off?

Tracy0403

It was myself that started the website due to my own experience. My own story appeared in the Glasgow Evening Times a week ago. I didnt put too much info on the website as I thought too much info might put people off reading it. I am a single mum in Glasgow and have had a horrendous experience over two years with the tax credit office. It cost me a job and my health. The last straw was a statement claiming I had been overpaid by £9998.00 over two year (my income was only £4,500). I have been campaigning to the other political parties and to the Citizens Advice to back the website and try and put as many people onto it as possible. Following the press coverage the petition went live and has had a great response so far.

I have also been in touch with the Information Commissioners Office to check on any Data Protection issues that it may have.

I have put on an email for anyone who would like more details on the petition and the site and I am happy to provide any further information.

Fran

tracy0403 wrote:

.... My own story appeared in the Glasgow Evening Times a week ago. I didnt put too much info on the website as I thought too much info might put people off reading it. I am a single mum in Glasgow and have had a horrendous experience over two years with the tax credit office. It cost me a job and my health. The last straw was a statement claiming I had been overpaid by £9998.00 over two year (my income was only £4,500). I have been campaigning to the other political parties and to the Citizens Advice to back the website and try and put as many people onto it as possible. Following the press coverage the petition went live and has had a great response so far.....

I can't see anything on the site re an email to contact you - what about a second page where people can read the above quote? And an email contact address, (if you have time to deal with a load of enquiries!).