tax credit overpayments new report published

shudd1967

I will apologise if this is already on the forum.

A while back I recieved a letter from our wonderful working tax dept to say that my partner and I have been overpayed by about £2,250 over the last three years.

Basically everything they have paid us in the last 3 years.

The reason is that whenever I recieved our award, i never signed and sent the form back to say I agreed with it. I always sent my P60 to them each year as my income can be variable due to the amount of overtime i do and also my partner is self emplyed so his income is variable so I always sent his accounts off to them so they were always fully updated on what our real income was as I never wanted to be overpaid. It was in this January I had recieve a letter stating that my benefits would stop as I had not signed the form bla blah.
At that time I was actually staying away from home for about a month after suffering a bit of a mini breakdown due to work based stress, family berevments and relationship problems. I opened the letter after the date had passed for appeal.

I wrote to them, apologised, explained why I was replying late and sent back the form signed as requested.
To no avail.

As they had now looked at that one they decided cos I had never signed anyforms agreeing to our award they were gonna reclaim every penny.

I have appealed. I have been totally honest and apologised and told them that yes I could not have read the forms properly as I had not signed them to say i agreed with the award and I was stupid in doing so. Incidentially i could not go back to the previous awards to see where it said I had to sign and return as most had been shredded when we moved house in Oct last year. I even in the past years sent back cheques we had recieved as I knew they were too much as our circumstances had changed, for exapmle mid way through one year i started work full time and at the time they had a back log of several months and as i knew we would be getting too much i sent back 2 cheques out of the 4 we recieved until they worked out our new totals. So think that proves i am an honest person.

I told them quite honestly why I always sent our P60s and accounts and that i had not noticed I had to sign to say i was happy - i just thought you sent it back if you disagreed with your award. I also went through the booklets they sent me to "help" with my appeal and there is nothing in them to say they can chase you for alledged overpayment due to not signing.

Anyways the appeal failed and I don't know what to do next. We have not been overpaid, if anything we have proberley not be paid enough, we have had nothing since December, despite trying to claim - amazingly they cannot find anything about a claim in Feb or April. We have only had what we have been entitled to.

I wish I had never bothered at all with this scheme and I must admit I really don't know what to do next. I can't pay, thats for sure and to be honest the little bit of fight i have got left in me feels I shouldn't pay as we have not fiddled benefits or been paid too much I just didn't sign the form. I know I just looked at the income they said we were earning and was happy with it and looked at total award and just put it away. The old family tax credit system used to say that if you agreed with it you did nothing more unless there were any major changes in the year, I found one of our old award letters in a box in the attic from abour 2002! So that must of stuck in my head.

Any ides?
Thankyou

clarecooper

I have a slightly different Tax Credit Overpayment!

When I moved house back in Nov 04, I wrote to the tax credit office to advise them of my new address. I never received anything from them so assumed all was in order.

I continued to receive my tax credits as normal and I still do now. Although last year I recieved a letter in the post stating that I was overpaid tax credits by over £300. Their argument is that I did not complete any new forms to continue my entitlement and that they had sent the papers to my old address because I hadn't advised them of my new one.:rotfl:

What I can't understand is, that if I didnt give them my address how did they find it in order to write to me to let me know that I now owe them money!!!

The stupid thing is, they advised me that I was entitled to the money for the tax year but because I didn't complete the forms (which they send to the wrong address) im not allowed to have it and they want it back.

I've written two compliant letters, each time the response has been the same "we have looked into your case and our decision is the same" please send us the money.

There is no way on this earth I am going to pay this money, money I was entitled to. They need to start talking to each other and get their office in order before they start demanding money from people that clearly don't have it. I'm sure they now owe me a lot more money as my husband was signed off work in June 06 with a back condition.

Can anyone let me know where I stand and if they can demand this money from me, clearly with my husband being signed of work indefinately I can't support the family let alone pay this!

Clare

mummyyummy_2

we, like everyone else here, received our letters today saying we owed £1800 due to overpayments. I have been trying to fight this for a while now and i did appeal but they knocked it back and they say i cant appeal again...what am i to do? we cant afford it . the letter today says they have contacted me about this and have sent me payments slips so why havnt i paid and i must pay it ALL now (7 days)? for a start, this is the first contact in months and months and ive never received payment slips from them. I am so worried as we have NO spare cash just now, things are very tight and they have reduced us to £7 per week from april because of a higher p60. Can i appeal again or what should i do? thanks

amani_2

my mum has recieved 3 letters telling her she has been overpaid working tax credit for the last 3 years the total amount is £14,000.:eek: she only ever filled in one claim form when she started work 3yrs ago her payment stopped after 1yr she never claimed again. then a year ago she broke both legs and was off sick. she then recieved a lump sum of £4,000 and weekly payments of over £100. she phoned them every week saying that she had not claimed the money and that she was not entitled they took all her details and info from her p60. they told her that she was entitled to it.

now she has to pay back £14,000:eek: and she has been told she cannot apeal against it. we are going to appeal against it though.

my mum and dad are both in there sixties and they are terrified

clarecooper

One other thing to show that they just don't have a clue what they are doing and how up the wall these people are;

Someone I know got overpaid in error due to a misunderstanding over the telephone. They got paid £14000 in error and when they advised the tax office of their error they told them to just hold on to the money and they wouldn't pay them anymore tax credits until their account was up-to-date.

So why is each case handled differently, they are earning about £50pm in interest for the privilege!

:rolleyes:

shudd1967

Its terrifying to be honest I am at my wits end.

I Have spoken to three other people who I know get tax credits and guess what.......they have never signed a thing to say they are happy with their awards ever! So why am I being harrassed for it.

Targets maybe? An easy target to get the department back some money?

I keep starting the letter to send to the ombudsman or whatever they are to try again and appeal and complain but just want to write pages of abuse as I am so fed up and angry!

Maybe better go going bankrupt and to hell with it! Grrr!! Bullies!!!

creamtea_2

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/taxmistakes/

bebee_2

shudd1967 wrote: »

Its terrifying to be honest I am at my wits end.

I Have spoken to three other people who I know get tax credits and guess what.......they have never signed a thing to say they are happy with their awards ever! So why am I being harrassed for it.

Targets maybe? An easy target to get the department back some money?

I keep starting the letter to send to the ombudsman or whatever they are to try again and appeal and complain but just want to write pages of abuse as I am so fed up and angry!

Maybe better go going bankrupt and to hell with it! Grrr!! Bullies!!!

Sorry for what you are going through, i am also a culprit of TC Over payement and fighting. Just to let you know If you did go Bankrupt Inland Revenue can not and will not be included in any Debts.

bebee_2

creamtea wrote: »

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/taxmistakes/:o

Can't open link keep getting page can not be displayed ?

creamtea_2

:A

http://www.taxcreditoverpayment.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/2.html
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/taxmistakes/