tax credit overpayments new report published

dibs

first time i was overpaid i was sent a letter on which the first line read due to our error you have been overpaid then it went on to ask for repayment, stupidly they also included that little leaflet about what to do if yoyr over paid which states if it is there fault they will not reclaim the money. so i just filled in the apeal form qoting the letter and leaflet saying that by sending it to me they had admitted responsibility and therefore under there own rules they could not reclaim the money. still took them six months to get back to me saying they were not going to be recovering the money, six months on reduced payments so maybe they didnt get it all but they got some. this year when the overpayment letter arrived i just got so annoyed with them as they keep increasing my wifes wages to the level she had when she had a job when other times they reduce them as she is now not employed i just wish they would use one or the other as my award yo yos up and down. may be better off without them.

akh43

I was overpaid in 2003/2004 due to their fault. I appealed in 2004 and they turned down my appeal. I reappealed and they admitted it was their mistake in jan 2005 and sent me a giro for the £310 overpayment.

I thought that was the end of it until i received this years tax credit award notice and they had taken back the £310 again.

After various letters and phone calls I got a phonecall the other day admitting, yet again, it was their fault (this time on two points) and I would get the money back again, though it may be after christmas.

Also she said I would get £10 for phone calls and £50 for all the inconvenience/distress.

Received the £60 today.

If anyone thinks they have a case for appeal don't give up.

carlih1

HI

I split up from my partner in January 2004 i had to go onto income support i told the tax credits office this. In April 04 my circumstances remained the same a 'completely new tax year', in September 04 when i had returned my form to make sure they were giving me the correct amount, they stopped my tax credits completely. I complained as i was only getting £50.00 income support for myself, they said that i had had the full years money, i found out i could claim as they couldn't pay me less than i was legally entitled to live on, i got sporadic payments from december (bearing in mind i have 2 children and it was christmas) my parents had to fund christmas, i also got myself into a lot of debt, in april this year they said they were going to take repayments for £700.00 i argued this and eventually won they paid me back £150 that i had already given them in overpayments.

I am still writing to them now to claim the money that i never had and bank charges interest for debt that i am in ect, the ruined my families lives and i am still in debt because of it, although they seem to think it is acceptable to be able to reply to a letter in 10 weeks then ignore the reply for 10- more weeks, i had a telephone call from them this morning saying that they were investigating why the system determined that i was overpaid.

I am so angry as i am still struggling and i am working now so should be enjoying my new found freedom.

Any suggestions

Carli :xmassign:

Feisty_Fairy

Hi all.

I am too still appealing against a decision that was made stating we have to pay them back for our £5000 overpayment! They said we never told them i was working!! Which of course i did!

After loads of tears and umpteen phone calls and letters, we were then told that we did in fact call in on 13th Feb 04, with an update of new job, salary, childcare etc, but whoever added all these details left the box with amount earned blank!!!!!

So we have appealed again, and have been told that we will have to wait as it takes a long time to re look at these things. I said we are in debt and need the money NOW. We have been paying them over £100 per month back, which has left us really skint!

So anybody that is in the same boat, keep trying and keep your fingers crossed! I am not going to give up without a fight!

Regards,

Feisty!

p.s good luck everyone!

janiewai

I was told the same thing that the error was their fault but I had to repay it and have been doing so since May 2004, I wrote to them 9 weeks ago asking for the rest of the overpayment to be written off as it was their fault and was causing hardship as I had a severely disabled daughter and guess what?.....not recieved a reply at all!!!

CharleneUK

janiewai wrote:

I was told the same thing that the error was their fault but I had to repay it and have been doing so since May 2004, I wrote to them 9 weeks ago asking for the rest of the overpayment to be written off as it was their fault and was causing hardship as I had a severely disabled daughter and guess what?.....not recieved a reply at all!!!

That's disgusting! Follow up with a phone call, ask to speak to the manager.

Good luck.

Sensemaya

I have had a lot of trouble too. I involved my MP ( once again ) and it is now sorted.Ask your MP's assistant to phone the Parliamentary hot line to find out what's going on. There is also a Directors hotline phone numberavailable for members of the public which begins with 01772...

When I am reassessed again I will be contacting my MP to verify everything is in order.

If the overpayment is the Govt's fault it should be wiped off and you should be compensated.Don't let it drop.

Shez

I am so pleased i read this thread!!!! I too have received a bill for an overpayment of £799 (sat morning so you cant get anyone on the phone till monday!!) It said they had told me about my overpayment - but I havent had any letters at all! so doesnt explain why.

today i receive another letter saying that ive been overpaid by £3400 for another tax year!!!

I was so upset about all this, gobsmacked, couldnt believe it had happened to me - ive always worked and given them every correct information each step of the way so as to avoid this kind of situation happening - but it still has!!!

I felt very alone until i just read all your responses and am glad im not alone in this!

I telephoned them and they said they would send out dispute forms for me to fill in and they then look at the case?

What a rotten time of year to send me this - how do you have a happy christmas with this sort of thing on your mind??

elaine373

Easy for me to say but as you can see there are many many cases like yours that result with people wrongly being told they have had an overpayment. Worse still at times like xmas etc. All i can say is ,as you have given them all the right info i really would try not to worry coz chances are it will be sorted out, (God knows when though) In the meantime, keep chatting here and get the support you need. Have a great xmas, You obviously will think of it at times, but just tell yourself it will get sorted,as i am sure it will.

stefanielouise

Hi all i new here.

After reading this post i was shocked to see how many people are in a similar boat to me.

I have always filled in there yearly forms notified them of changes etc but this started in october 05,

my partner had a holiday from work during this time his back (suffers alot) started to give him grief again, we see his specialist that diagnosed him with a definate schuermanns disease took them 6 years to find this out, which is now being looked into for arthritis anyway, he had to go on ssp sorted that out notified tax credits like we were told to, 2 weeks later i get the new award to my surprise we have been overpaid for 2003/2004 2004/2005 and 2005 to present total of 3684 they stopped all payments which were 100 a week as they were claiming the money back but what made me mad was they had overpaid us but put in 1.70 on the day of the letter.

I phoned them up all i got was you have received your amount for this year there is nothing we can do we are tied to what the computer says, after a few tears, many arguements and me getting depressed worrying about the kids and partner i went to the cab they were told the same, so in the end deans employer laid him of as he cant return gave them the final figure and still they were going to pay nothing had quite a lot of arguements, but i decided couple of days before xmas i would go down to the local office had one of school poorly also and i stood there told the receptionist i wanted to see someone explained why laid it on look i cant even feed kids properly due to your !!!! up hes of school ill what you gonna do attitude.

After being there an hour and being told by them they cannot take every penny the max is half your normal payments which helped i walked out with a 2 weeks giro feeling a little less stressed, i am going back on tuesday for another payment and to see whats going on and when it is sorted properly through the bank as it cant be done this way as it will just drop of the system but how the hell i am meant to survive with 3 kids under 6 and partner on incapacity a total of 300 a month i dont know but i wont let it go

Sorry if its long x